Optical Bloch oscillations in waveguide arrays

Peschel, Ulf; Pertsch, Thomas; Lederer, F.

doi:10.1364/ol.23.001701

Cited by 306 publications

(245 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Db , where Db ¼ 2p l 0 Dn eff is the increment of the propagation constant from one waveguide to the next 25 . Hence, L Bloch is expected to decrease for stronger gradients of the effective refractive index.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

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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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bloch oscillations in plasmonic waveguide arrays

et al. 2014

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“…In addition, due to the large number of lattice sites, the effects of boundary on Bloch oscillations cannot be explored in electronic materials. Since there is no interaction of light with the dielectric and therefore no scattering that can randomize the transverse momentum of a wave packet in a lattice of waveguides, they provide an ideal platform to study Bloch oscillations and other energy-band related quantum phenomena in finite lattices where boundary effects can be prominent [12].…”

Section: Phase-controlled Photonic Transportmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since β 0 only shifts the zero of the energy spectrum, we will ignore it in the subsequent treatment. This system is created by using variable-width waveguides with variable spacing between them to ensure constant tunneling and a linear gradient with δβ/β 0 ∼ 10 −4 [12]. The equation of motion for the electric-field creation operator is given by i ∂a † j /∂t = [H, a † j ] and reduces to…”

Section: Phase-controlled Photonic Transportmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A variation in the index of refraction or the tunneling amplitude, both of which can be introduced easily, permit the modeling of a tight-binding Hamiltonian with site or bond disorders respectively. Due to this versatility, many quantum and condensed matter phenomena -Bloch oscillations [12,13], Dirac zitterbewegung [14], and increased intensity fluctuations [15,16] of light undergoing Anderson localization [17][18][19] -have been theoretically predicted to occur or experimentally observed in waveguide arrays. They have been used to investigate solitonic solutions that arise due to nonlinearities in the dielectric response [20,21].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Optical waveguide arrays: quantum effects and PT symmetry breaking

Joglekar

Thompson

Scott

et al. 2013

Eur. Phys. J. Appl. Phys.

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Abstract. Over the last two decades, advances in fabrication have led to significant progress in creating patterned heterostructures that support either carriers, such as electrons or holes, with specific band structure or electromagnetic waves with a given mode structure and dispersion. In this article, we review the properties of light in coupled optical waveguides that support specific energy spectra, with or without the effects of disorder, that are well-described by a Hermitian tight-binding model. We show that with a judicious choice of the initial wave packet, this system displays the characteristics of a quantum particle, including transverse photonic transport and localization, and that of a classical particle. We extend the analysis to non-Hermitian, parity and time-reversal (PT ) symmetric Hamiltonians which physically represent waveguide arrays with spatially separated, balanced absorption or amplification. We show that coupled waveguides are an ideal candidate to simulate PT -symmetric Hamiltonians and the transition from a purely real energy spectrum to a spectrum with complex conjugate eigenvalues that occurs in them.

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“…This simple physical mechanism, called discrete diffraction, has profound implications on the macroscopic behaviour of a WGA as an optical medium, enabling a diversity of linear and nonlinear phenomena that are absent in continuous media. Among them are discrete solitons [3,4], Bloch-momentum dependent diffraction [5], Bloch oscillations [6] and surface Bloch oscillations [7,8], Rabi oscillations [9], Zener tunnelling [10], perfect or fractional revivals [11], discrete Talbot effect [12], and dynamic localization [13]. The peculiar behaviour of light inside waveguide lattices is owed to the photonic band structure that is associated with the periodic effective-index "potential".…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Band-specific phase engineering for curving and focusing light in waveguide arrays

Chremmos

Efremidis

2012

Phys. Rev. A

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Band specific design of curved light caustics and focusing in optical waveguide arrays is introduced. Going beyond the discrete, tightbinding model, which we examined recently, we show how the exact band structure and the associated diffraction relations of a periodic waveguide lattice can be exploited to phase-engineer caustics with predetermined convex trajectories or to achieve optimum aberration-free focal spots. We numerically demonstrate the formation of convex caustics involving the excitation of Floquet-Bloch modes within the first or the second band and even multi-band caustics created by the simultaneous excitation of more than one bands. Interference of caustics in abruptly autofocusing or collision scenarios are also examined. The experimental implementation of these ideas should be straightforward since the required input conditions involve phase-only modulation of otherwise simple optical wavefronts. By direct extension to more complex periodic lattices, possibilities open up for band specific curving and focusing of light inside 2D or even 3D photonic crystals.

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Optical Bloch oscillations in waveguide arrays

Cited by 306 publications

References 5 publications

Bloch oscillations in plasmonic waveguide arrays

Bloch oscillations in plasmonic waveguide arrays

Optical waveguide arrays: quantum effects and PT symmetry breaking

Band-specific phase engineering for curving and focusing light in waveguide arrays

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