Purely loss-coupled distributed feedback lasers based on electromagnetically induced absorption in active photonic band gaps

Abstract

We utilize electromagnetically induced absorption (EIA) in a one-dimensional functional (active) photonic band gap structure to propose a coherently generated purely loss-coupled distributed feedback (DFB) laser. Such a laser happens when interaction of the photonic band structure with a control laser field totally removes its refractive index perturbation and replaces it with periodic regions of EIA, forming an optical dark lattice. Such a lattice does not have any stop band, but scatters light coherently at the Bragg wavelength. We also show that before the optical dark lattice happens, the photonic band gap structure can act as a coherently generated partly loss-coupled DFB laser with dominant lasing mode at the longer wavelength side of the stop band. We expect such a distinct feature makes this laser quite stable.