In the last few years, the great utility of exceptional points in sensing linear perturbations has been recognized. However, physical systems are inherently anharmonic and macroscopic physics is most accurately described by nonlinear models. Considering the multitude of semiclassical and quantum effects ensuing from nonlinear interactions, the sensing of anharmonicities is a prerequisite to the primed control of these effects. Here, we propose an expedient sensing scheme relevant to dissipatively coupled anti parity-time (anti-PT) symmetric systems and customized for the fine-grained estimation of anharmonic perturbations. The sensitivity to anharmonicities is derived from the coherence between two modes induced by a common vacuum. Owing to this coherence, the linear response acquires a pole on the real axis. We demonstrate how this singularity can be exploited for the enhanced sensing of very weak anhamonicities at low pumping rates. Our results are applicable to a wide class of systems, and we specifically illustrate the remarkable sensing capabilities in the context of a weakly anharmonic yttrium iron garnet sphere interacting with a cavity via a tapered fiber waveguide. A small change in the anharmonicity leads to a substantial change in the induced spin current.

• Received 22 October 2020
• Accepted 12 April 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.180401