Simulating Coupled Spin Systems with Lasers

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Abstract: Besides their potential for high power high brightness lasers, coupled laser networks reveal intriguing physical phenomena.

 

First, very large arrays of more than 1000 lasers with nearest neighbor negative coupling generate long range "anti-ferromag netic" phase order which reveals "frustration" in certain type of lattices such as the Kagome lattice.

 

Second, arrays of coupled fiber lasers with fluctuating lengths are shown to be a new type of random laser whose phase and power fluctuations agree with extreme value distributions of random matrices.

 

Thirdly, global coupling can be used for real-time wavefront shaping through scattering media and for controlling the spatial coherence of a laser.

 

Finally, complex laser networks with homogenous time delayed coupling are shown to divide into phase synchronized clusters where the number of clusters is the greatest common divider of the number of lasers in simply connected loops.