Refractionless propagation of discretized light

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that discretized light can propagate across a tilted interface between two waveguide lattices without refraction, challenging the traditional understanding of light bending at media boundaries.

Contribution

The study reveals that refractionless propagation is possible in discretized optical systems, providing a new way to control light in photonic structures.

Findings

Refractionless propagation observed in discretized light systems.

Counterintuitive refraction behavior at tilted interfaces.

Potential applications in integrated photonics.

Abstract

Light refraction, i.e. the bending of the path of a light wave at the interface between two different dielectric media, is ubiquitous in optics. Refraction arises from the different speed of light and is unavoidable in continuous media according to Snell's Law. Here we show rather counterintuitively that omnidirectional refractionless propagation can be observed for discretized light crossing a tilted interface separating two homogeneous waveguide lattices.