486 research outputs found
Presence of temporal dynamical instabilities in topological insulator lasers
Topological insulator lasers are a newly introduced kind of lasers in which
light snakes around a cavity without scattering. Like for an electron current
in a topological insulator material, a topologically protected lasing mode
travels along the cavity edge, steering neatly around corners and imperfections
without scattering or leaking out. In a recent experiment, topological
insulator lasers have been demonstrated using a square lattice of coupled
semiconductor microring resonators with a synthetic magnetic field. However,
laser arrays with slow population dynamics are likely to show dynamical
instabilities in a wide range of parameter space corresponding to realistic
experimental conditions, thus preventing stable laser operation. While
topological insulator lasers provide an interesting mean for combating disorder
and help collective oscillation of lasers at the edge of the lattice, it is not
clear whether chiral edge states are immune to dynamical instabilities. In this
work we consider a realistic model of semiconductor class-B topological
insulator laser and show that chiral edge states are not immune to dynamical
instabilities.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure
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