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Discretizing light behaviour in linear and nonlinear waveguide lattices

Nature volume 424, pages 817–823 (2003)Cite this article

Abstract

Light propagating in linear and nonlinear waveguide lattices exhibits behaviour characteristic of that encountered in discrete systems. The diffraction properties of these systems can be engineered, which opens up new possibilities for controlling the flow of light that would have been otherwise impossible in the bulk: these effects can be exploited to achieve diffraction-free propagation and minimize the power requirements for nonlinear processes. In two-dimensional networks of waveguides, self-localized states—or discrete solitons—can travel along 'wire-like' paths and can be routed to any destination port. Such possibilities may be useful for photonic switching architectures.

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Figure 1: Waveguide arrays and their diffraction behaviour.
Figure 2: Phase difference between adjacent waveguides (kxD).
Figure 3: Experimental results depicting optical Bloch oscillations in a 4.5 cm long thermo-optically tuned polymer array at a wavelength of 0.633 μm (ref. 14).
Figure 4: Array band structure and the associated Floquet–Bloch modes.
Figure 5: Experimental observation of discrete solitons.
Figure 6: Experimental results in 2D photorefractive lattices.
Figure 7: Possible applications of discrete solitons.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge useful discussions with Stewart Aitchison, George Stegeman, Mordechai Segev, Ulf Peschel, Roberto Morandotti, Hagai Eisenberg, Nikos Efremidis, Thomas Pertsch, D. Mandelik and Jared Hudock. The work of D.N.C. was supported by ARO MURI and of F.L. by the European Community grant (IST-2000-26005).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Optics/CREOL, University of Central Florida, Orlando, 32816-2700, Florida, USA

    Demetrios N. Christodoulides

  2. Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Max-Wien-Platz 1, Jena, 07743, Germany

    Falk Lederer

  3. Department of Physics of Complex Systems, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, 76100, Israel

    Yaron Silberberg

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Christodoulides, D., Lederer, F. & Silberberg, Y. Discretizing light behaviour in linear and nonlinear waveguide lattices. Nature 424, 817–823 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature01936

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