Photonic analog of Zitterbewegung in binary waveguide arrays

Abstract

An optical analog of Zitterbewegung (ZB), i.e., of the trembling motion of Dirac electrons caused by the interference between positive and negative energy states, is proposed for spatial beam propagation in binary waveguide arrays. In this optical system the ZB is simply observable as a quiver spatial oscillatory motion of the beam center of mass around its mean trajectory.