Reconfigurable symmetry-broken laser in a symmetric microcavity

The coherent light source is one of the most important foundations in both optical physics studies and applied photonic devices. However, the whispering gallery microcavity, as a prime platform for novel light sources, has the intrinsically chiral symmetry and severely rules out access to directional light output, all-optical flip-flops, efficient light extraction, etc. Here, we demonstrate a reconfigurable symmetry-broken microlaser in an ultrahigh-Q whispering gallery microcavity with the symmetric structure, in which a chirality of lasing field is empowered spontaneously by the optical nonlinear effect. Experimentally, the ratio of counter-propagating lasing intensities is found to exceed 160:1, and the chirality can be controlled dynamically and all-optically by the bias in the pump direction. This work not only presents a distinct recipe for coherent light sources with robust and reconfigurable performance, but also opens up an unexplored avenue to symmetry-broken physics in optical micro-structures. The directional lasing emission in whispering gallery microcavities typically resorts to breaking the structure symmetry. Here the authors demonstrate a reconfigurable symmetry-broken microlaser in a symmetric ultrahigh-Q whispering gallery microcavity, in which a chirality of lasing fields is empowered spontaneously by nonlinear effects.