Self-organization of frozen light in near-zero-index media with cubic nonlinearity

TL;DR

This paper theoretically demonstrates the formation of frozen light in near-zero-index media with cubic nonlinearity, revealing potential applications in optical storage, quantum memories, and explaining natural phenomena like ball-lightning.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of self-organized frozen light in near-zero-index media with cubic nonlinearity, including the discovery of soliton-like structures and their dynamics.

Findings

Existence of soliton-like frozen light structures in near-zero-index media.

Numerical solutions of Maxwell's equations confirm stable azimuthal doughnut-shaped light.

Potential explanations for ball-lightning phenomena in natural environments.

Abstract

We theoretically demonstrate the existence of frozen light in near-zero-index media with cubic nonlinearity. Light is stopped to a standstill owing to the divergent wavelength and the vanishing group velocity, effectively rendering, through nonlinearity, a positive-epsilon trapping cavity carved in an otherwise slightly-negative-epsilon medium. By numerically solving Maxwell's equations, we find a soliton-like family of still azimuthal doughnuts, which we further study through an adiabatic perturbative theory that describes soliton evaporation in lossy media or condensation in actively pumped materials. Our results suggest applications in optical data processing and storage, quantum optical memories, and soliton-based lasers without cavities. Additionally, near-zero-index conditions can also be found in the interplanetary medium and in the atmosphere, where we provide an alternative explanation to the rare phenomenon of ball-lightning.