Lasing and Amplification from Two-Dimensional Atom Arrays

Vahagn Mkhitaryan, Lijun Meng, Andrea Marini, and F. Javier García de Abajo

Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 163602 – Published 17 October 2018

Abstract

We explore the ability of two-dimensional periodic atom arrays to produce light amplification and generate laser emission when gain is introduced through external optical pumping. Specifically, we predict that lasing can take place for arbitrarily weak atomic scatterers assisted by cooperative interaction among atoms in a 2D lattice. We base this conclusion on analytical theory for three-level scatterers, which additionally reveals a rich interplay between lattice and atomic resonances. Our results provide a general background to understand light amplification and lasing in periodic atomic arrays, with promising applications in the generation, manipulation, and control of coherent photon states at the nanoscale.

Received 9 July 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.163602

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Quantum description of light-matter interaction Scattering of atoms, molecules, clusters & ions

Atomic, Molecular & Optical

Authors & Affiliations

Vahagn Mkhitaryan^1,†, Lijun Meng^1,2,†, Andrea Marini^1,3, and F. Javier García de Abajo^1,4,*

¹ICFO-Institut de Ciencies Fotoniques, The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, 08860 Castelldefels (Barcelona), Spain
²State Key Laboratory of Modern Optical Instrumentation, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
³Department of Physical and Chemical Sciences, University of L’Aquila, Via Vetoio, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy
⁴ICREA-Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats, Passeig Lluís Companys 23, 08010 Barcelona, Spain

^*Corresponding author. javier.garciadeabajo@nanophotonics.es
^†V. M. and L. M. contributed equally to this work.

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Issue

Vol. 121, Iss. 16 — 19 October 2018

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