Optical hollow-core waves in nonlinear Epsilon-Near-Zero metamaterials

TL;DR

This paper explores the propagation of non-diffracting hollow-core nonlinear optical waves in layered epsilon-near-zero metamaterials, revealing unique power flow characteristics due to nonlinear and linear dielectric interactions.

Contribution

It provides an analytical demonstration of hollow-core wave behavior in nonlinear ENZ metamaterials, highlighting the zero power flow at the core due to electric displacement field compensation.

Findings

Hollow-core waves have zero power flow at the center.

Power flow exhibits sharp slopes at the edges of the core.

The core's zero power flow results from electric displacement field cancellation.

Abstract

We investigate non-diffracting hollow-core nonlinear optical waves propagating in a layered nanoscaled metal-dielectric structure characterized by a very small average linear dielectric permittivity (Nonlinear Epsilon-Near-Zero metamaterial). We analytically show that hollow-core waves have a power flow exactly vanishing at a central region and exhibiting a sharp sloped profile at the edges of the regions surrounding the core. Physically, the absence of power flow at the core region is due to the vanishing of the transverse component of the electric displacement field, condition that can be satisfied by the full compensation between the nonlinear and linear dielectric contribution.