Pulse propagation in one-dimensional disordered photonic crystals: Interplay of disorder with instantaneous and relaxing nonlinearities

TL;DR

This paper investigates how ultrashort light pulses propagate through disordered one-dimensional photonic crystals, highlighting the complex interplay between disorder and nonlinearities, including effects like pulse self-trapping influenced by relaxation dynamics.

Contribution

It provides a numerical analysis of the combined effects of disorder and both instantaneous and relaxing nonlinearities on pulse propagation in photonic crystals.

Findings

Disorder and nonlinearity interact differently over various timescales.

Relaxing nonlinearity influences pulse self-trapping.

Disorder level affects the self-trapping phenomenon.

Abstract

Propagation of ultrashort light pulses in disordered multilayers is studied by using numerical simulations in time domain. We consider cases of instantaneous and noninstantaneous Kerr nonlinearities of the structure materials. The competitive nature of disorder and nonlinearity is revealed on the long and short timescales. We also pay special attention to the effect of pulse self-trapping in the photonic crystal with relaxing nonlinearity and show the dependence of this effect on the level of disorder. We believe that the results reported here will be useful not only in the field of optics but also from the standpoint of the general problem of classical waves propagation in nonlinear disordered periodic media.