Optical Solitons and Frequency Comb Generation - Abstract
Rotter, Stefan
In my talk I will present the concept of random anti-lasing, i.e., the time-reverse of random lasing. In the same way as a random laser emits a spatially complex but coherent wave at its first lasing threshold, the random anti-laser absorbs such a complex incoming field perfectly. We recently implemented this concept in a microwave experiment, where an absorber is embedded in the middle of a disordered medium [1]. Measuring the 8x8 scattering matrix of this structure allows us to calculate and then generate an incoming wave field that gets absorbed by more than 99.7 percent inside the disorder. Our setup is scalable in the number of involved modes and can easily be transferred to other wave scattering systems. I will conclude with an outlook on the possible applications of this novel technology and with a discussion of how to generate wave fields with optimal properties in general [2]. [1] K. Pichler, M. Kühmayer, J. Böhm, A. Brandstötter, P. Ambichl, U. Kuhl, and S. Rotter, Nature 567, 351 (2019). [2] M. Horodynski, M. Kühmayer, A. Brandstötter, K. Pichler, Y. V. Fyodorov, U. Kuhl, and S. Rotter, arXiv:1907.09956