Lasing and counter-lasing phase transitions in a cavity-QED system

Abstract

We study the effect of spontaneous emission and incoherent atomic pumping on the nonlinear semiclassical dynamics of the unbalanced Dicke model---a generalization of the Dicke model that features independent coupling strengths for the co- and counter-rotating interaction terms. As well as the ubiquitous superradiant behavior the Dicke model is well-known for, the addition of spontaneous emission combined with the presence of strong counter-rotating terms creates a laserlike behavior termed counter-lasing. These states appear in the semiclassical model as stable periodic orbits. We perform a comprehensive dynamical analysis of the appearance of counter-lasing in the unbalanced Dicke model subject to strong cavity dissipation, such that the cavity field can be adiabatically eliminated to yield an effective Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick (LMG) model. If the coupling strength of the corotating interactions is small, then the counter-lasing phase appears via a Hopf bifurcation of the deexcited state. We find that if the rate of spontaneous emission is small, this can lead to resurgent superradiant pulses. However, if the corotating coupling is larger, then the counter-lasing phase must emerge via the steady-state superradiant phase. Such a transition is the result of the competition of the coherent and incoherent processes that drive superradiance and counter-lasing, respectively. We observe a surprisingly complex transition between the two, associated with the formation of a chaotic attractor over a thin transitional parameter region.