(Invited) Two-color soliton meta-atoms and molecules

authored by

O. Melchert, S. Willms, I. Babushkin, U. Morgner, A. Demircan

Abstract

We present a detailed overview of the physics of two-color soliton molecules in nonlinear waveguides, i.e. bound states of localized optical pulses which are held together due to an incoherent interaction mechanism. The mutual confinement, or trapping, of the subpulses, which leads to a stable propagation of the pulse compound, is enabled by the nonlinear Kerr effect. Special attention is paid to the description of the binding mechanism in terms of attractive potential wells, induced by the refractive index changes of the subpulses, exerted on one another through cross-phase modulation. Specifically, we discuss nonlinear-photonics meta atoms, given by pulse compounds consisting of a strong trapping pulse and a weak trapped pulse, for which trapped states of low intensity are determined by a Schrödinger-type eigenproblem. We discuss the rich dynamical behavior of such meta-atoms, demonstrating that an increase of the group-velocity mismatch of both subpulses leads to an ionization-like trapping-to-escape transition. We further demonstrate that if both constituent pulses are of similar amplitude, molecule-like bound-states are formed. We show that z-periodic amplitude variations permit a coupling of these pulse compound to dispersive waves, resulting in the resonant emission of Kushi-comb-like multi-frequency radiation.

Organisation(s)

PhoenixD: Photonics, Optics, and Engineering - Innovation Across Disciplines
Institute of Quantum Optics

Type

Article

Journal

OPTIK

Volume

280

ISSN

0030-4026

Publication date

06.2023

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials, Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijleo.2023.170772 (Access: Open)