Light dynamics in nonlinear trimers and twisted multicore fibers

TL;DR

This paper explores the nonlinear light dynamics in small photonic structures like trimers and multicore fibers, focusing on how nonlinearity, coupling, and PT symmetry influence their optical modes and stability.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of nonlinear dynamics in few-element photonic systems, highlighting the interplay of nonlinearity, coupling, and PT symmetry in mode stability.

Findings

Nonlinear modes depend on coupling and gain/loss parameters.

Stability regions for optical modes are characterized.

Dynamics of light propagation in small photonic structures are mapped.

Abstract

Novel photonic structures such as multi-core fibers and graphene based arrays present unique opportunities to manipulate and control the propagation of light. Here we discuss nonlinear dynamics for structures with a few (2 to 6) elements for which linear and nonlinear properties can be tuned. Specifically we show how nonlinearity, coupling, and parity-time PT symmetric gain/loss relate to existence, stability and in general, dynamical properties of nonlinear optical modes. The main emphasis of our presentation will be on systems with few degrees of freedom, most notably couplers, trimers and generalizations thereof to systems with 6 nodes.