Temporal Loss Boundary Engineered Photonic Cavity

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel method of controlling photon dynamics in optical cavities by engineering a transient loss boundary, acting as a photon brake, enabling new phenomena and applications in photonics.

Contribution

The study presents the concept of a transient loss boundary in photon cavities, providing a new way to manipulate photon coupling and dynamics through engineered loss modulation.

Findings

Coupled to uncoupled photon states achieved via loss boundary control

Model explains spectral oscillations and tone-tuning in cavity photons

Potential applications include quantum states and nonreciprocal devices

Abstract

Losses are ubiquitous and unavoidable in nature inhibiting the performance of most optical processes. Manipulating losses to adjust the dissipation of photons is analogous to braking a running car that is as important as populating photons via a gain medium. Here, we introduce the transient loss boundary into a photon populated cavity that functions as a photon brake and probe photon dynamics by engineering the brake timing and brake strength. Coupled cavity photons can be distinguished by stripping one photonic mode through controlling the loss boundary, which enables the transition from a coupled to an uncoupled state. We interpret the transient boundary as a perturbation by considering both real and imaginary parts of permittivity, and the dynamic process is modelled with a temporal two-dipole oscillator, one with the natural resonant polarization and the other with a frequency-shift polarization. The model unravels the underlying mechanism of concomitant coherent spectral oscillations and generation of tone-tuning cavity photons in the braking process. By synthesizing the temporal loss boundary into a photon populated cavity, a plethora of interesting phenomena and applications are envisioned such as the observation of quantum squeezed states, low-loss nonreciprocal waveguides and ultrafast beam scanning devices.