Nonlinear Waves in Subwavelength Waveguide Arrays: Evanescent Bands and the "Phoenix Soliton"

    Authors

    O. Peleg; M. Segev; G. Bartal; D. N. Christodoulides;N. Moiseyev

    Comments

    Authors: contact us about adding a copy of your work at STARS@ucf.edu

    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Phys. Rev. Lett.

    Keywords

    OPTICAL BLOCH OSCILLATIONS; GAP SOLITONS; LIGHT; Physics, Multidisciplinary

    Abstract

    We formulate wave propagation in arrays of subwavelength waveguides with sharp index contrasts and demonstrate the collapse of bands into evanescent modes and lattice solitons with superluminal phase velocity. We find a self-reviving soliton ("phoenix soliton") comprised of coupled forward- and backward-propagating light, originating solely from evanescent bands. In the linear regime, all Bloch waves comprising this beam decay, whereas a proper nonlinearity assembles them into a propagating self-trapped beam. Finally, we simulate the dynamics of such a beam and observe breakup into temporal pulses, indicating a new kind of slow-light gap solitons, trapped in time and in one transverse dimension.

    Journal Title

    Physical Review Letters

    Volume

    102

    Issue/Number

    16

    Publication Date

    1-1-2009

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    4

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000265479300028

    ISSN

    0031-9007

    Share

    COinS