Polychromatic photonic Floquet-Bloch oscillations

Area of Science:

• Photonics and Optics
• Waveguide Arrays
• Nonlinear Optics

Background:

• Photonic Floquet-Bloch oscillations (FBOs) are a novel phenomenon observed in photonic Floquet lattices.
• FBOs represent a discrete self-imaging effect in optical systems.
• Understanding the spectral properties of FBOs is crucial for their practical application.

Purpose of the Study:

• To theoretically investigate the spectral range of approximate photonic Floquet-Bloch oscillations.
• To demonstrate the adjustability of the spectral range for FBOs in optical waveguide arrays.
• To explore the potential for polychromatic self-imaging using engineered FBOs.

Main Methods:

• Theoretical investigation of evanescently coupled optical waveguide arrays.
• Analysis of approximate photonic Floquet-Bloch oscillations under varying Floquet modulation amplitudes.
• Design of functional forms for Floquet modulation to cascade FBOs.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated approximate photonic FBOs over a broad spectral range, termed 'polychromatic photonic Floquet-Bloch oscillations'.
• Showcased approximate self-imaging of polychromatic beams due to these oscillations.
• Achieved cascaded polychromatic photonic FBOs by designing the Floquet modulation, enhancing self-imaging performance.

Conclusions:

• A simple and novel mechanism for achieving polychromatic self-imaging in waveguide arrays has been presented.
• The findings offer a tunable approach to control the spectral range of FBOs.
• Potential applications include polychromatic beam shaping and broadband optical signal processing.