Optical diametric drive acceleration through action-reaction symmetry breaking

    Authors

    M. Wimmer; A. Regensburger; C. Bersch; M. A. Miri; S. Batz; G. Onishchukov; D. N. Christodoulides;U. Peschel

    Comments

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

    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Nat. Phys.

    Keywords

    PHOTONIC-CRYSTAL FIBERS; AIRY BEAMS; DYNAMICS; SOLITONS; LATTICES; GENERATION; HORIZON; Physics, Multidisciplinary

    Abstract

    Newton's third law of motion is one of the pillars of classical physics. This fundamental principle states that the forces two bodies exert on each other are equal and opposite. Had the resulting accelerations been oriented in the same direction, this would have instead led to a counterintuitive phenomenon, that of diametric drive(1). In such a hypothetical arrangement, two interacting particles constantly accelerate each other in the same direction through a violation of the action-reaction symmetry. Although in classical mechanics any realization of this process requires one of the two particles to have a negative mass and hence is strictly forbidden, it could nevertheless be feasible in periodic structures where the effective mass can also attain a negative sign(2-7). Here we report the first experimental observation of such diametric drive acceleration for pulses propagating in a nonlinear optical mesh lattice(8-14). The demonstrated reversal of action-reaction symmetry could enable altogether new possibilities for frequency conversion and pulse-steering applications.

    Journal Title

    Nature Physics

    Volume

    9

    Issue/Number

    12

    Publication Date

    1-1-2013

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    780

    Last Page

    784

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000327944600015

    ISSN

    1745-2473

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