Impact of loss on the wave dynamics in photonic waveguide lattices

TL;DR

This paper investigates how loss affects wave dynamics in photonic waveguide lattices, revealing complex hopping, a transition from ballistic to diffusive spreading, and a new loss-induced diffraction, supported by theoretical and experimental evidence.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of complex hopping due to loss and demonstrates its effects on wave spreading and diffraction in photonic lattices.

Findings

Loss causes complex hopping between waveguides.

Transition from ballistic to diffusive light spreading.

Loss-induced diffraction observed experimentally.

Abstract

We analyze the impact of loss in lattices of coupled optical waveguides and find that in such case, the hopping between adjacent waveguides is necessarily complex. This results not only in a transition of the light spreading from ballistic to diffusive, but also in a new kind of diffraction that is caused by loss dispersion. We prove our theoretical results with experimental observations.