Does the reciprocity principle imply the lifetimes of counterpropagating modes in whistle-geometry ring lasers should be equal?

摘要

A key feature of the whistle-geometry semiconductor ring lasers is the asymmetry between the counterpropagating modes, which might be misconstrued as a violation of the Helmholtz reciprocity principle and the time-reversal symmetry of Maxwell's equations. We confirm the unidirectionality of the proposed whistle-geometry configuration through rigorous three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain simulation.