Exceptional Rings in Nonlinear Non-Hermitian Planar Optical Microcavities: Implementation, Signal Enhancement, and Topology

Abstract Non-Hermitian systems hosting exceptional points (EPs) exhibit signal enhancement and unconventional mode dynamics. Going beyond isolated EPs, here we report on the existence of exceptional rings (ERs) in planar optical resonators with a specific form of circular dichroism and TE–TM splitting. Such exceptional rings possess intriguing topologies as discussed earlier for condensed matter systems, but they remain virtually unexplored in the presence of nonlinearity, for which our photonic platform is ideal. We find that when Kerr-type nonlinearity (or saturable gain) is introduced, the linear ER splits into two concentric ERs, with the larger-radius ring being a ring of third-order EPs. Transitioning from linear to nonlinear regime, we present a rigorous analysis of (spectral and band) topologies and report an enhanced and adjustable perturbation response in the nonlinear regime. Whereas certain features are specific to our system, the results on non-Hermitian topologies and nonlinearity-enhanced perturbation responses are generic and equally relevant to a broad class of other nonlinear non-Hermitian systems, providing a universal framework for engineering ERs and EPs in nonlinear non-Hermitian systems.