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WORLD SCIENTIFIC eBooks

Interaction of Light with Gain Media

Eugeny Sergeevich Andrianov, Eugeny D. Chubchev, A. V. Dorofeenko, Igor A. Nechepurenko, Alexander Pukhov, A. A. Zyablovsky

Published Jun 22, 2020• 0 citations
Publisher
DOI
10.1142/9789813270329_0006

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Virtual gain refers to the simulation of real light amplification using radiation with exponentially decaying amplitude so that its complex frequency corresponds to the scattering pole. We study theoretically virtual gain in a two-level resonant medium for different regimes of light-matter interaction depending on the radiation intensity. We show that virtual gain at the pole can be most clearly observed for low intensities, when the medium is absorbing, in contrast to the saturated medium at high intensities. The efficiency of virtual gain can be tuned with the light intensity and controlled dynamically through the population inversion of the medium. Our results show that resonantly absorbing media paradoxically mimic a gainlike response, which admits a number of related phenomena and methods to mold both optical signals and material properties without relying on instability-prone gain media.

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Interaction of light with generic active media

Malin Premaratne, Govind Prasad Agrawal

The study of optical effects in active media is rich with unexpected consequences. For instance, one may imagine that absorption and amplification in a dielectric medium will exhibit some sort of symmetry because both are related to the same imaginary part of the dielectric constant, except for a sign change. It turns out that such a symmetry does not exist [1]. This issue has also been investigated in detail for random or disordered gain media, with varying viewpoints [2]. Traditionally, much of the research on amplifying media has considered the interaction of light within the entire volume of such a medium. Recent interest in metamaterials and other esoteric structures in which plasmons are used to manipulate optical signals has brought attention to the role of surface waves in active dielectrics [3, 4]. From a fundamental perspective, the main difference between active and passive media is that spontaneous emission cannot be avoided in gain media. As a result, a rigorous analysis of gain media demands a quantum-mechanical treatment. Spontaneous emission in a gain medium depends not only on the material properties of that medium but also on the optical modes supported by the structure containing that material [5]. By a clever design of this structure (e.g., photonic crystals or microdisk resonators with a metallic cladding), it is possible to control the local density of optical modes and the spontaneous emission process itself. In Chapter 4, we discuss how to model a gain medium under such conditions by deploying optical Bloch equations.

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Slow light enhancement and limitations in periodic media

Jure Grgić

Properties of periodic dielectric media have attracted a big interest in the last two decades due to numerous exciting physical phenomena that cannot occur in homogeneous media. Due to their strong dispersive properties, the speed of light can be significantly slowed down in periodic structures. When light velocity is much smaller than the speed of light in a vacuum, we describe this phenomena as slow light. In this thesis, we analyze important properties of slow light enhancement and limitations in periodic structures. We analyze quantitatively and qualitatively different technologies and significant structures with numerical and analytical methods. By analyzing different structures, we show very general properties for limitation and enhancement in the slow light regime. Inherent imperfections of fabricated structures such as a material loss and structural disorder have a strong influence on slowly propagating light. By means of perturbative analysis, we address the effect of small imperfections in periodic structures. From our analysis, we find very universal behavior in a slow light regime for all periodic structures. Even if losses are very small the dispersion is severely affected in the vicinity of the band edge. The minimum attainable group velocity will depend on the amount of imperfections. Since imperfections are inherited as part of any periodic structure it is necessary to take them into account when we are interested in slow light applications. Slowly propagating light gives rise to longer interaction time in the periodic media. Due to this reason, weak light-matter interaction is enhanced. The enhancement due to slow light has been studied for loss and gain. By introducing gain/loss, dispersive properties, in the slow light region, are severely influenced. The minimum attainable group velocity is strongly dependent on the amount of introduced loss/gain that will result in limitation of enhancement. Therefore, small amounts of gain/loss will provide great enhancement. While for a large amount of gain/loss slow, light is heavily jeopardized, hence no enhancement will occur.

•Jan 1, 2012•0 citations
Virtual gain refers to the simulation of real light amplification using radiation with exponentially decaying amplitude so that its complex frequency corresponds to the scattering pole. We study theoretically virtual gain in a two-level resonant medium for different regimes of light-matter interaction depending on the radiation intensity. We show that virtual gain at the pole can be most clearly observed for low intensities, when the medium is absorbing, in contrast to the saturated medium at high intensities. The efficiency of virtual gain can be tuned with the light intensity and controlled dynamically through the population inversion of the medium. Our results show that resonantly absorbing media paradoxically mimic a gainlike response, which admits a number of related phenomena and methods to mold both optical signals and material properties without relying on instability-prone gain media.
The study of optical effects in active media is rich with unexpected consequences. For instance, one may imagine that absorption and amplification in a dielectric medium will exhibit some sort of symmetry because both are related to the same imaginary part of the dielectric constant, except for a sign change. It turns out that such a symmetry does not exist [1]. This issue has also been investigated in detail for random or disordered gain media, with varying viewpoints [2]. Traditionally, much of the research on amplifying media has considered the interaction of light within the entire volume of such a medium. Recent interest in metamaterials and other esoteric structures in which plasmons are used to manipulate optical signals has brought attention to the role of surface waves in active dielectrics [3, 4]. From a fundamental perspective, the main difference between active and passive media is that spontaneous emission cannot be avoided in gain media. As a result, a rigorous analysis of gain media demands a quantum-mechanical treatment. Spontaneous emission in a gain medium depends not only on the material properties of that medium but also on the optical modes supported by the structure containing that material [5]. By a clever design of this structure (e.g., photonic crystals or microdisk resonators with a metallic cladding), it is possible to control the local density of optical modes and the spontaneous emission process itself. In Chapter 4, we discuss how to model a gain medium under such conditions by deploying optical Bloch equations.
Properties of periodic dielectric media have attracted a big interest in the last two decades due to numerous exciting physical phenomena that cannot occur in homogeneous media. Due to their strong dispersive properties, the speed of light can be significantly slowed down in periodic structures. When light velocity is much smaller than the speed of light in a vacuum, we describe this phenomena as slow light. In this thesis, we analyze important properties of slow light enhancement and limitations in periodic structures. We analyze quantitatively and qualitatively different technologies and significant structures with numerical and analytical methods. By analyzing different structures, we show very general properties for limitation and enhancement in the slow light regime. Inherent imperfections of fabricated structures such as a material loss and structural disorder have a strong influence on slowly propagating light. By means of perturbative analysis, we address the effect of small imperfections in periodic structures. From our analysis, we find very universal behavior in a slow light regime for all periodic structures. Even if losses are very small the dispersion is severely affected in the vicinity of the band edge. The minimum attainable group velocity will depend on the amount of imperfections. Since imperfections are inherited as part of any periodic structure it is necessary to take them into account when we are interested in slow light applications. Slowly propagating light gives rise to longer interaction time in the periodic media. Due to this reason, weak light-matter interaction is enhanced. The enhancement due to slow light has been studied for loss and gain. By introducing gain/loss, dispersive properties, in the slow light region, are severely influenced. The minimum attainable group velocity is strongly dependent on the amount of introduced loss/gain that will result in limitation of enhancement. Therefore, small amounts of gain/loss will provide great enhancement. While for a large amount of gain/loss slow, light is heavily jeopardized, hence no enhancement will occur.