Optical Analogue of Electronic Bloch Oscillations

Sapienza, Riccardo; Costantino, Paola; Wiersma, Diederik S.; Ghulinyan, Mher; Otón, Claudio J.; Pavesi, L.

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.91.263902

Cited by 267 publications

(192 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…In their essence, BO are a wave phenomenon. As such, they are found for optical [7][8][9][10][11] and acoustic 12 waves as well. When interactions between particles compete with their mobility, novel dynamical behaviour can arise where particles form bound states 13 and co-tunnel through the lattice 14 .…”

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confidence: 64%

Fractional Bloch oscillations in photonic lattices

et al. 2013

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Bloch oscillations, the oscillatory motion of a quantum particle in a periodic potential, are one of the most fascinating effects of coherent quantum transport. Originally studied in the context of electrons in crystals, Bloch oscillations manifest the wave nature of matter and are found in a wide variety of different physical systems. Here we report on the first experimental observation of fractional Bloch oscillations, using a photonic lattice as a model system of a two-particle extended Bose–Hubbard Hamiltonian. In our photonic simulator, the dynamics of two correlated particles hopping on a one-dimensional lattice is mapped into the motion of a single particle in a two-dimensional lattice with engineered defects and mimicked by light transport in a square waveguide lattice with a bent axis

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confidence: 64%

Fractional Bloch oscillations in photonic lattices

et al. 2013

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“…For example, Felix Bloch predicted in his seminal paper 5 that a crystal electron carries out an oscillatory motion under the influence of an external static electric field. While scattering of the electron prevents Bloch oscillations in bulk crystals, they have been observed in a number of equivalent systems, such as semiconductor superlattices 6 , atomic systems 7,8 , arrays of coupled dielectric waveguides 9,10 and periodic dielectric systems 11 . Other examples for the ability to map wave phenomena among different physical systems are Zener tunnelling in optical lattices 12,13 , as well as the analogy between the ballistic motion of an electronic wave packet in a tight-binding lattice 14 and discrete diffraction of light in a waveguide array 15,16 .…”

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confidence: 99%

Bloch oscillations in plasmonic waveguide arrays

et al. 2014

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The combination of modern nanofabrication techniques and advanced computational tools has opened unprecedented opportunities to mold the flow of light. In particular, discrete photonic structures can be designed such that the resulting light dynamics mimics quantum mechanical condensed matter phenomena. By mapping the time-dependent probability distribution of an electronic wave packet to the spatial light intensity distribution in the corresponding photonic structure, the quantum mechanical evolution can be visualized directly in a coherent, yet classical wave environment. On the basis of this approach, several groups have recently observed discrete diffraction, Bloch oscillations and Zener tunnelling in different dielectric structures. Here we report the experimental observation of discrete diffraction and Bloch oscillations of surface plasmon polaritons in evanescently coupled plasmonic waveguide arrays. The effective external potential is tailored by introducing an appropriate transverse index gradient during nanofabrication of the arrays. Our experimental results are in excellent agreement with numerical calculations.

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“…The related high-field phenomenon, Landau-Zener tunneling (LZT) between neighboring bands across the band gap [15,16], was also observed in SSLs for electrons [17,18], and in optical lattices for ultracold atoms [19] and Bose-Einstein condensates [20]. Optical BOs and LZT of light waves have also been observed in time-resolved experiments [21][22][23].…”

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confidence: 91%

Surface Acoustic Bloch Oscillations, the Wannier-Stark Ladder, and Landau-Zener Tunneling in a Solid

et al. 2010

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We present the experimental observation of Bloch oscillations, the Wannier-Stark ladder, and LandauZener tunneling of surface acoustic waves in perturbed grating structures on a solid substrate. A model providing a quantitative description of our experimental observations, including multiple Landau-Zener transitions of the anticrossed surface acoustic Wannier-Stark states, is developed. The use of a planar geometry for the realization of the Bloch oscillations and Landau-Zener tunneling allows a direct access to the elastic field distribution. The vertical surface displacement has been measured by interferometry. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.165502 PACS numbers: 63.20.Àe, 43.35.+d, 63.22.Àm, 68.35.Àp Bloch oscillations (BOs) of an electron in a periodic potential under a constant electric field is a paradigm quantum effect [1,2]. BOs of the wave-packet group velocity are the result of the interplay between the particlelike acceleration by a constant driving force and wave Bragg reflection in the periodic potential. The frequencydomain counterpart of BOs is the equidistant WannierStark ladder (WSL) of localized states in a perturbed periodic system [3]. Electron BOs and WSL have been demonstrated in a number of experiments after the advent of semiconductor superlattices (SSLs) [4]. The WSL leads to resonances of the density of electronic states which were observed for the first time in optical spectra in SSLs [5]. BOs were first observed in time-resolved optical experiments in biased SSLs as oscillations of electron wave packets [6][7][8][9][10], and later as a periodic motion of ensembles of ultracold atoms [11,12] and Bose-Einstein condensates [13,14] in optical lattices. The related high-field phenomenon, Landau-Zener tunneling (LZT) between neighboring bands across the band gap [15,16], was also observed in SSLs for electrons [17,18] In this Letter, we demonstrate that fundamental effects of quantum-wave transport in a perturbed periodic potential such as BOs, WSL, and LZT can be studied with surface acoustic waves (SAWs) in a solid. Our experimental results, including multiple LZ-like transitions between the anticrossed surface acoustic WS states, are described by a theoretical model developed by us. The used planar geometry allows the direct access to the elastic field distribution of the corresponding WS and LZ eigenstates.In our approach, we employ SAW cavities separated by acoustic Bragg reflectors (BRs). These structures are defined by locally changing the SAW propagation properties via the deposition of thin gold stripes in-between a LiNbO 3 SAW delay line (see Fig. 1). The BRs are efficient barriers, presenting high reflectivity for an incoming wave packet. This arises from the destructive interference of the properly arranged set of reflectors that creates a stop-band in the transmission spectrum for the incoming wave. Further-

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Optical Analogue of Electronic Bloch Oscillations

Cited by 267 publications

References 36 publications

Fractional Bloch oscillations in photonic lattices

Fractional Bloch oscillations in photonic lattices

Bloch oscillations in plasmonic waveguide arrays

Surface Acoustic Bloch Oscillations, the Wannier-Stark Ladder, and Landau-Zener Tunneling in a Solid

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