Tunable photonic Bloch oscillations in electrically modulated photonic crystals

TL;DR

This paper theoretically demonstrates tunable photonic Bloch oscillations in one-dimensional nonlinear photonic crystals, controlled by external electric fields, enabling terahertz oscillations with adjustable amplitude and period.

Contribution

It introduces a method to achieve and control photonic Bloch oscillations in nonlinear photonic crystals using graded electric fields, expanding potential applications in terahertz technologies.

Findings

Photonic Bloch oscillations can be induced in nonlinear photonic crystals.

Electric field gradients enable tunability of oscillation amplitude and period.

Terahertz Bloch oscillations are achievable and controllable.

Abstract

We exploit theoretically the occurrence and tunability of photonic Bloch oscillations (PBOs) in one-dimensional photonic crystals (PCs) containing nonlinear composites. Because of the enhanced third-order nonlinearity (Kerr type nonlinearity) of composites, photons undergo oscillations inside tilted photonic bands, which are achieved by the application of graded external pump electric fields on such PCs, varying along the direction perpendicular to the surface of layers. The tunability of PBOs (including amplitude and period) is readily achieved by changing the field gradient. With an appropriate graded pump AC or DC electric field, terahertz PBOs can appear and cover a terahertz band in electromagnetic spectrum.