Light dynamics around an exceptional point in a 1D photonic bandgap waveguide

Abstract

Exceptional points (EP) in a system parameter space at which eigenvalues and corresponding eigenvectors coalesce are ubiquitous in non-Hermitian systems. Many unconventional applications have been proposed while encircling around the EPs. One of the unique application is the direction-dependent mode conversion. Here the appearance of an EP has been investigated in a planar 1D Bragg reflection waveguide(BRW) geometry, which has provided an additional degree of freedom to explore EP-based exotic light dynamics. A planar 1D BRW consists of periodic dielectric arrays and a defect dielectric layer forming the core. An inhomogeneous customized gain-loss profile is incorporated in the core region to couple two quasi-guided transverse electric (TE) modes so that the waveguide hosts an EP of order two. Here, we propose a dynamical EP encirclement scheme and corresponding asymmetric mode conversion phenomenon between two photonic bandgap quasi-guided TE modes in a 1D photonic bandgap-guided structure. Our findings will be potentially important to open up a fertile platform using the paradigm of non-Hermitian coupling to meet a wide range of exotic integrated chip-scale applications in the context of mode selectivity for switching and conversion.