1208.2901 (Henning Schomerus et al.)

Parity anomaly and Landau-level lasing in strained photonic honeycomb
lattices    [PDF]

Henning Schomerus, Nicole Yunger Halpern

We describe the formation of highly degenerate, Landau-level-like amplified states in a strained photonic honeycomb lattice in which amplification breaks the sublattice symmetry. As a consequence of the parity anomaly, the zeroth Landau level is localized on a single sublattice and possesses an enhanced or reduced amplification rate. The selection of the sublattice depends on the strain orientation, but is independent of the valley; therefore, the anomaly directly affects the mode selection and lasing threshold. The spectral properties of the higher Landau levels are constrained by a generalized time-reversal symmetry of dynamical origin.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1208.2901