Kerr-nonlinearity induced bistable-like parity-time phase transition in coupled waveguides

We analyze the parity-time ( ) symmetric phase in coupled two waveguides with a Kerr-type medium in between. Paying attention to the emitted field from a dipole source inside, we show that when the strength of the dipole increases, the optical Kerr effect can render a phase transition from the exact...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Optics express 2021-03, Vol.29 (5), p.7935-7947
Main Authors: Sun, Lin-Shan, Zhao, Bo, Yuan, Jia-Qi, Chen, Jing
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:We analyze the parity-time ( ) symmetric phase in coupled two waveguides with a Kerr-type medium in between. Paying attention to the emitted field from a dipole source inside, we show that when the strength of the dipole increases, the optical Kerr effect can render a phase transition from the exact phase to the broken phase. Furthermore, a salient phenomenon of bistable-like phase is observed, in which the emitted field possesses a paradox between the two kinds of phases. We show that the physical mechanism of this bistable-like phenomenon is a globally inhomogeneous phase, in which different spatial regions of the whole structure can possess different phases (broken or exact). This study highlights the potential to manipulate the phase transition by using optical nonlinearity for many interesting applications.
ISSN:1094-4087
1094-4087
DOI:10.1364/OE.414551