Floquet engineering of localized propagation of light in waveguide array

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how Floquet engineering in waveguide arrays can induce localized light propagation by creating bound modes in the band-gap, offering a method to control light confinement and simulate quantum decoherence control.

Contribution

It introduces a Floquet-based approach to achieve light localization in waveguide arrays through periodic modulation, revealing a new mechanism for light confinement.

Findings

Localized light propagation occurs in modulated waveguides due to bound quasistationary modes.

Periodic structure engineering can effectively confine light in waveguide arrays.

The mechanism serves as a classical analog for decoherence control in quantum systems.

Abstract

The light propagating in a waveguide array or photonic lattice has become an ideal platform to control light and to mimic quantum behaviors in a classical system. We here investigate the propagation of light in a coupled waveguide array with one of the waveguides periodically modulated in its geometric structure or refractive index. Within the framework of Floquet theory, it is interesting to find that the light shows the localized propagation in the modulated waveguide as long as bound quasistationary modes are formed in the band-gap area of the Floquet eigenvalue spectrum. This mechanism gives a useful instruction to confine light via engineering the periodic structure to form the bound modes. It also serves as a classical simulation of decoherence control via temporally periodic driving in open quantum systems.