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Ideal photon trapping in a time-potential

Ihar Babushkin, Oliver Melchert, Uwe Morgner, Ayhan Demircan

Published Jan 1, 2025• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We consider photon trapping by refractive index steps moving with speed of light. We show that such trapping fundamentally differs from conventional, ”standing” cavities, demonstrating zero reflection through the walls and breaking several fundamental limits.
DOI
10.1364/cleo_fs.2025.ff146_3

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Nonlinearly generated refractive index fronts in waveguides can change the signal frequency and wavenumber leading to the indirect transitions. Here, we discuss how dynamic light stopping and pulse time reversal can be implemented in dispersive waveguides via these transitions. Our scheme, in contrast to previous concepts of light stopping and time reversal, is not limited by a strict phase matching condition and does not require local index variations, thus, can manipulate broadband signals in a single step process. The presented results are experimentally feasible using existing photonic waveguides technologies.