Optical Analogues for Massless Dirac Particles and Conical Diffraction in One Dimension

    Authors

    J. M. Zeuner; N. K. Efremidis; R. Keil; F. Dreisow; D. N. Christodoulides; A. Tunnermann; S. Nolte;A. Szameit

    Comments

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

    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Phys. Rev. Lett.

    Keywords

    ELECTRON; LIGHT; Physics, Multidisciplinary

    Abstract

    We demonstrate that light propagating in an appropriately designed lattice can exhibit dynamics akin to that expected from massless relativistic particles as governed by the one-dimensional Dirac equation. This is accomplished by employing a waveguide array with alternating positive and negative effective coupling coefficients, having a band structure with two intersecting minibands. Through this approach optical analogues of massless particle-antiparticle pairs are experimentally realized. One-dimensional conical diffraction is also observed for the first time in this work.

    Journal Title

    Physical Review Letters

    Volume

    109

    Issue/Number

    2

    Publication Date

    1-1-2012

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    5

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000306417200007

    ISSN

    0031-9007

    Share

    COinS