Title

Optical Diametric Drive Acceleration Through Action-Reaction Symmetry Breaking

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. 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. Here we report the first experimental observation of such diametric drive acceleration for pulses propagating in a nonlinear optical mesh lattice. The demonstrated reversal of action-reaction symmetry could enable altogether new possibilities for frequency conversion and pulse-steering applications. © 2013 Macmillan Publishers Limited.

Publication Date

1-1-2013

Publication Title

Nature Physics

Volume

9

Issue

12

Number of Pages

780-784

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys2777

Socpus ID

84892576978 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/84892576978

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS