Phason dynamics in nonlinear photonic quasicrystals
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Updated: Jul 13, 2026

Fabrication And Characterization Of Photonic Crystal Slow Light Waveguides And Cavities
Published on: November 30, 2012
Barak Freedman1, Ron Lifshitz, Jason W Fleischer
1Physics Department and Solid State Institute, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel.
Abstract:
We study the dynamics of phasons in a nonlinear photonic quasicrystal. The photonic quasicrystal is formed by optical induction, and its dynamics is initiated by allowing the light waves inducing the quasicrystal to nonlinearly interact with one another. We show quantitatively that, when phason strain is introduced in a controlled manner, it relaxes through the nonlinear interactions within the photonic quasicrystal. We establish experimentally that the relaxation rate of phason strain in the quasicrystal is substantially lower than the relaxation rate of phonon strain, as predicted for atomic quasicrystals. Finally, we monitor and identify individual 'atomic-scale' phason flips occurring in the photonic quasicrystal as its phason strain relaxes, as well as noise-induced phason fluctuations.
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