LAUSR

Topological protection for lasers Ideas based on topology, initially developed in mathematics to describe the properties of geometric space under deformations, are now finding application in materials, electronics, and optics. The main driver is topological protection, a property that provides stability to a system even in the presence of defects. Harari et al. outline a theoretical proposal that carries such ideas over to geometrically designed laser cavities. The lasing mode is confined to the topological edge state of the cavity structure. Bandres et al. implemented those ideas to fabricate a topological insulator laser with an array of ring resonators. The results demonstrate a powerful platform for developing new laser systems. Science, this issue p. eaar4003, p. eaar4005 Lasing is observed in an edge mode of a designed optical topological insulator. INTRODUCTION Topological insulators emerged in condensed matter physics and constitute a new phase of matter, with insulating bulk and robust edge conductance that is immune to imperfections and disorder. To date, topological protection is known to be a ubiquitous phenomenon, occurring in many physical settings, ranging from photonics and cold atoms to acoustic, mechanical, and elastic systems. So far, however, most of these studies were carried out in entirely passive, linear, and conservative settings. RATIONALE We propose topological insulator lasers: lasers whose lasing mode exhibits topologically protected transport without magnetic fields. Extending topological physics to lasers is far from natural. In fact, lasers are built on foundations that are seemingly inconsistent with the essence of topological insulators: They require gain (and thus are non-Hermitian), they are nonlinear entities because the gain must be saturable, and they are open systems because they emit light. These properties, common to all lasers, cast major doubts on the possibility of harnessing topological features to make a topological insulator laser. Despite this common mindset, we show that the use of topological properties leads to highly efficient lasers, robust to defects and disorder, with single-mode lasing even at conditions high above the laser threshold. RESULTS We demonstrate that topological insulator lasers are theoretically possible and experimentally feasible. We consider two configurations involving planar arrays of coupled active resonators. The first is based on the Haldane model, archetypical for topological systems. The second model, geared toward experiment, constitutes an aperiodic array architecture creating an artificial magnetic field. We show that by introducing saturable gain and loss, it is possible to make these systems lase in a topological edge state. In this way, the lasing mode exhibits topologically protected transport; the light propagates unidirectionally along the edges of the cavity, immune to scattering and disorder, unaffected by the shape of the edges. Moreover, we show that the underlying topological properties not only make the system robust to fabrication and operational disorder and defects, they also lead to a highly efficient single-mode lasing that remains single-mode even at gain values high above the laser threshold. The figure describes the geometry and features of a topological insulator laser based on the Haldane model while adding saturable gain, loss, and an output port. The cavity is a planar honeycomb lattice of coupled microring resonators, pumped at the perimeter with a lossy interior. We show that under these conditions, lasing occurs at the topological edge mode, which has unidirectional flux and is extended around the perimeter with almost-uniform intensity. The topological cavities exhibit higher efficiency than the trivial cavity, even under strong disorder. For the topological laser with a small gap, the topological protection holds as long as the disorder level is smaller than the gap size. DISCUSSION The concept of the topological insulator laser alters current understanding of the interplay between disorder and lasing, and opens exciting possibilities at the interface of topological physics and laser science, such as topologically protected transport in systems with gain. We show here that the laser system based on the archetypal Haldane model exhibits topologically protected transport, with features similar to those of its passive counterpart. This behavior means that this system is likely to have topological invariants, despite the nonhermiticity. Technologically, the topological insulator laser offers an avenue to make many semiconductor lasers operate as one single-mode high-power laser. The topological insulator laser constructed from an aperiodic array of resonators was realized experimentally in an all-dielectric platform, as described in the accompanying experimental paper by Bandres et al. Topological insulator laser based on the Haldane model and its efficiency. (A) Planar honeycomb lattice of coupled microring resonators pumped at the perimeter. The topological lasing mode has unidirectional flux with almost-uniform intensity, which builds up as the mode circulates and drops when passing the output coupler. (B) Slope efficiency (in arbitrary units) versus disorder strength for three cases differing only in the Haldane phase (of the next-to-nearest neighbor coupling): a topological laser with the maximum gap (blue; Haldane phase of π/2), one with a small topological gap (red; Haldane phase of π/8), and a topologically trivial laser with no gap (black; Haldane phase of 0). Topological insulators are phases of matter characterized by topological edge states that propagate in a unidirectional manner that is robust to imperfections and disorder. These attributes make topological insulator systems ideal candidates for enabling applications in quantum computation and spintronics. We propose a concept that exploits topological effects in a unique way: the topological insulator laser. These are lasers whose lasing mode exhibits topologically protected transport without magnetic fields. The underlying topological properties lead to a highly efficient laser, robust to defects and disorder, with single-mode lasing even at very high gain values. The topological insulator laser alters current understanding of the interplay between disorder and lasing, and at the same time opens exciting possibilities in topological physics, such as topologically protected transport in systems with gain. On the technological side, the topological insulator laser provides a route to arrays of semiconductor lasers that operate as one single-mode high-power laser coupled efficiently into an output port.