Temporal localization of optical waves supported by a copropagating quasiperiodic structure

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that a nonlinear optical fiber system can support stable quasi-periodic temporal oscillations, leading to exponential localization of a probe wave in time, analogous to Aubry-Andre localization in condensed matter.

Contribution

It introduces a photonic system exhibiting temporal localization of optical waves supported by a quasiperiodic structure, a novel analogue of time crystals.

Findings

Stable nonlinear propagation induces quasi-periodic oscillations.

A weaker signal wave experiences exponential temporal localization.

Temporal localization can be observed as a transient signal in the fiber.

Abstract

Research on time crystals concerns the spontaneous breaking of translational symmetry in time, as well as the realization of phenomena and phases known from solid-state physics in the time domain. Periodically driven systems of massive particles are widely used in these studies. In the present work, we consider a photonic system and demonstrate that stable nonlinear propagation of a strong optical wave in a fiber leads to the establishment of quasi-periodic oscillations in the electromagnetic field intensity. A second, weaker signal optical wave propagating in the fiber senses these oscillations and, as a result, undergoes exponential localization in time. This is a temporal analogue of Aubry-Andre localization. If an optical detector is placed at a certain position in the fiber, the temporal localization of the probe wave will be observed in the form of the signal which emerges and then decays as a function of time.