Non-Hermiticity-Governed Active Photonic Resonances

Photonic resonances play an essential role in the generation and propagation of light in optical and photonic devices, as well as in light-matter interaction, including nonlinear optical responses. Previous studies in lasers and other open systems have shown exotic roles played by non-Hermiticity on modifying passive resonances, defined in the absence of optical gain and loss. Here we report a new type of resonances in non-Hermitian photonic systems that does not originate from a passive resonance, identified by analyzing a unique quantization condition in the non-Hermitian extension of the Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin method. Termed active photonic resonances, these unique resonances are found in non-Hermitian systems with a spatially correlated complex dielectric function, which is related to supersymmetry quantum mechanics after a Wick rotation. Remarkably, such an active photonic resonance shifts continuously on the real frequency axis as optical gain increases, suggesting the possibility of a tunable on-chip laser that can span a wavelength range over 100 nm.