Broadband time-reversal of optical pulses using a switchable photonic-crystal mirror

Abstract

Abstract:Recently, Chumak et al. have demonstrated experimentally the time-reversal of microwave spin pulses based on non-adiabatically tuning the wave speed in a spatially-periodic manner [1]. Here, we solve the associated wave equations analytically, and give an explicit formula for the reversal efficiency. We then discuss the implementation for short optical electromagnetic pulses and show that the new scheme may lead to their accurate time-reversal with efficiency higher than before.

Time reversal of a wave packet with temporal modulation of gauge potential

“…(10) and (11). This already represents an improvement over most of conventional time-reversal schemes 7-11 , which only reverse the group velocity.…”

“…The simulated system has edges along both the x− and y−directions. Therefore we apply an electric field along the [11] …”

“…The capability to achieve a time-reversal operation for classical acoustic and electromagnetic waves [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] is of fundamental importance for controlling wave dynamics, and has found practical applications in communication, sensing and imaging 1,13,14 . For acoustic waves, time-reversal has been achieved by a process of recording and playing back using an array of transducers 3,5,6 .…”

“…For applications of time reversals for either photons or phonons, as discussed in Refs. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] , reversing the probability density propagation is sufficient. The two cases considered below as implementation of Eq.…”

Instantaneous modulations in time-varying complex optical potentials

“…Note that a similar (full) wave equation for the space-dependent electric field and permittivity is discussed in [37] for describing the so-called  -symmetric coherent-perfect-absorber laser. Moreover, time reversal and time-dependent wave propagation is studied in various aspects, such as for time-localized perturbations combined with spatial periodicity [45][46][47][48] and sigmoidally changing systems with either real or complex permittivity/refractive index [41,[49][50][51][52].…”