Abstract
Unique and flexible properties of non-Hermitian photonic systems attract ever-increasing attention via delivering a whole bunch of novel optical effects and allowing for efficient tuning light-matter interactions on nano- and microscales. Together with an increasing demand for the fast and spatially compact methods of light governing, this peculiar approach paves a broad avenue to novel optical applications. Here, unifying the approaches of disordered metamaterials and non-Hermitian photonics, we propose a conceptually new and simple architecture driven by disordered loss-gain multilayers and, therefore, providing a powerful tool to control both the passage time and the wave-front shape of incident light with different switching times. For the first time we show the possibility to switch on and off kink formation by changing the level of disorder in the case of adiabatically raising wave fronts. At the same time, we deliver flexible tuning of the output intensity by using the nonlinear effect of loss and gain saturation. Since the disorder strength in our system can be conveniently controlled with the power of the external pump, our approach can be considered as a basis for different active photonic devices.
Highlights
Unique and flexible properties of non-Hermitian photonic systems attract ever-increasing attention via delivering a whole bunch of novel optical effects and allowing for efficient tuning light-matter interactions on nano- and microscales
The studies of open optical systems containing loss and gain attract increased attention. Such systems are well-known for many years, the recent trend of non-Hermitian photonics provides the second breath to the investigations of lasers, waveguides, resonators, etc
We name here only a few examples, such as the effects of P T symmetry[1,2,3] and exceptional p oints[4,5]. These effects include unidirectional invisibility6,7, sensors[8,9] and g yroscopes[10,11] with enhanced sensitivity, loss-induced[12] and asymmetric[13] lasing, novel single-mode[14,15,16] and v ortex[17] lasers, coherent perfect absorbers[18,19,20,21], and topological bulk-boundary correspondence[22,23,24,25]. Disordered photonics is another spotlight of modern r esearch[26]
Summary
Unique and flexible properties of non-Hermitian photonic systems attract ever-increasing attention via delivering a whole bunch of novel optical effects and allowing for efficient tuning light-matter interactions on nano- and microscales. I. Stepanov Institute of Physics, National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Nezavisimosti Avenue 68, 220072 The dynamics of light interaction with structures containing both loss/gain and disorder are still poorly studied.
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