We experimentally demonstrate $PT$-symmetric optical lattices with periodical gain and loss profiles in a coherently prepared four-level $N$-type atomic system. By appropriately tuning the pertinent atomic parameters, the onset of $PT$-symmetry breaking is observed through measuring an abrupt phase-shift jump between adjacent gain and loss waveguides. The experimental realization of such a readily reconfigurable and effectively controllable $PT$-symmetric waveguide array structure sets a new stage for further exploiting and better understanding the peculiar physical properties of these non-Hermitian systems in atomic settings.

Effective transition between the population-inverted optical eigenmodes of two coupled microcavities carrying mechanical oscillation realizes a phonon analog of optical two-level lasers. By providing an approach that linearizes the dynamical equations of weak nonlinear systems without relying on their steady states, we study such phonon laser action as a realistic dynamical process, which exhibits time-dependent stimulated phonon field amplification especially when one of the cavities is added with optical gain medium. The approach we present explicitly gives the conditions for the optimum phonon lasing, and thermal noise is found to be capable of facilitating the phonon laser action significantly.

One of the most fundamental problems in optomechanical cooling is how small the thermal phonon number of a mechanical oscillator can be achieved under the radiation pressure of a proper cavity field. Different from previous theoretical predictions, which were based on an optomechanical system’s time-independent steady states, we treat such cooling as a dynamical process of driving the mechanical oscillator from its initial thermal state, due to its thermal equilibrium with the environment, to a stabilized quantum state of higher purity. We find that the stabilized thermal phonon number left in the end actually depends on how fast the cooling process could be. The cooling speed is decided by an effective optomechanical coupling intensity, which constitutes an essential parameter for cooling, in addition to the sideband resolution parameter that has been considered in other theoretical studies. The limiting thermal phonon number that any cooling process cannot surpass exhibits a discontinuous jump across a certain value of the parameter.

We propose the idea and design of a novel resonant micro-optical gyro based on a self-injection locking technique. By enhancing the reciprocity and measuring beat frequency, the sensitivity of gyro is improved effectively, which is usually limited by two main factors: low signal-to-noise ratio and immature signal detecting technique. In addition, a small size distributed feedback semiconductor laser with megahertz linewidth is used for miniaturization, instead of the narrow linewidth and tunable laser in traditional resonant gyros. Sensitivity of this resonant micro-optical gyro depends, in fact, on the accuracy of time measurement. In this paper, theory sensitivity is demonstrated to be at the order of 10⁻⁴ deg/h under a 6 KHz modulation frequency.

Nonreciprocal devices are indispensable for building quantum networks and ubiquitous in modern communication technology. Here, we propose to take advantage of the interference between optomechanical interaction and linearly-coupled interaction to realize optical nonreciprocal transmission in a double-cavity optomechanical system. Particularly, we have derived essential conditions for perfect optical nonreciprocity and analysed properties of the optical nonreciprocal transmission. These results can be used to control optical transmission in quantum information processing.

We study the coupled even number of microcavities with the balanced gain and loss between any pair of their neighboring components. The effective non-Hermitian Hamiltonian for such a structure has the cyclic permutation-time symmetry with respect to the cavity modes, and this symmetry determines the patterns of the dynamical evolutions of the cavity modes. The systems also have multiple exceptional points for the degeneracy of the existing supermodes, exhibiting the “phase transition” of system dynamics across these exceptional points. We illustrate the quantum dynamical properties of the systems with the evolutions of cavity photon numbers and correlation functions. Moreover, we demonstrate the effects of the quantum noises accompanying the amplification and dissipation of the cavity modes. The reciprocal light transportation predicted with the effective non-Hermitian models for the similar couplers is violated by the unavoidable quantum noises.