Coherent Perfect Absorbers: Time-Reversed Lasers
- 26 July 2010
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review Letters
- Vol. 105 (5), 053901
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.105.053901
Abstract
We show that an arbitrary body or aggregate can be made perfectly absorbing at discrete frequencies if a precise amount of dissipation is added under specific conditions of coherent monochromatic illumination. This effect arises from the interaction of optical absorption and wave interference and corresponds to moving a zero of the elastic matrix onto the real wave vector axis. It is thus the time-reversed process of lasing at threshold. The effect is demonstrated in a simple Si slab geometry illuminated in the 500–900 nm range. Coherent perfect absorbers act as linear, absorptive interferometers, which may be useful as detectors, transducers, and switches. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.053901 © 2010 The American Physical Society
Keywords
This publication has 12 references indexed in Scilit:
- Strong Interactions in Multimode Random LasersScience, 2008
- Self-consistent multimode lasing theory for complex or random lasing mediaPhysical Review A, 2006
- Critically coupled resonators in vertical geometry using a planar mirror and a 5 nm thick absorbing filmOptics Letters, 2006
- Review on latest developments in random lasers with coherent feedbackJournal of Physics A: General Physics, 2005
- Observation of Critical Coupling in a Fiber Taper to a Silica-Microsphere Whispering-Gallery Mode SystemPhysical Review Letters, 2000
- Large Petermann factor in chaotic cavities with many scattering channelsEurophysics Letters, 2000
- Nonorthogonality of the longitudinal eigenmodes of a laserPhysical Review A, 1989
- Excess spontaneous emission in non-Hermitian optical systems. I. Laser amplifiersPhysical Review A, 1989
- Higher Angular Momenta and Long Range Interaction in Resonance ReactionsPhysical Review B, 1947
- The dispersion formula for nuclear reactionsProceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A - Mathematical and Physical Sciences, 1938