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Title: Exceptional point of sixth-order degeneracy in a modified coupled-resonator optical waveguide

We demonstrate for the first time, to our knowledge, the occurrence of asixth-order exceptional point of degeneracy (EPD) in a realistic multimode optical photonic structure by using a modified periodic coupled-resonator optical waveguide (CROW) at the optical wavelengthλ<#comment/>e=1550nm. The sixth-order EPD is obtained in a CROW without the need of loss or gain, and such an EPD corresponds to a very special band edge of the periodic photonic structure where six eigenmodes coalesce, so we refer to it as the sixth-order degenerate band edge (6DBE). Moreover, we report a new scaling law of the quality factorQof an optical cavity made of such a periodic 6DBE-CROW with cavity length asQ∝<#comment/>N7, when operating near the 6DBE withNbeing the number of unit cells in the periodic finite-length CROW. Furthermore, we elaborate on the application of the 6DBE to ultralow-threshold lasers. We present a novel scaling law of the lasing threshold that scales asN−<#comment/>7when operating near the 6DBE. Also, we show the superiority of the threshold scaling of the 6DBE-CROW to the scaling of another CROW with the same size operating near a fourth-order EPD that is often referred to as the degenerate band edge (DBE). The lasing threshold scaling of the DBE-CROW laser is shown here for the first time to our knowledge. We also discuss the high sensitivity of the proposed 6DBE-CROW to perturbations, which may find applications in sensors, modulators, optical switches, nonlinear devices, andQ-switching cavities.

 
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Award ID(s):
1711975
NSF-PAR ID:
10171132
Author(s) / Creator(s):
;
Publisher / Repository:
Optical Society of America
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Journal of the Optical Society of America B
Volume:
37
Issue:
8
ISSN:
0740-3224; JOBPDE
Page Range / eLocation ID:
Article No. 2319
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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