Isotopic variations and Zeeman-like splitting in the spectra of nonlinear photonic meta-atoms

TL;DR

This paper explores the spectral properties of nonlinear photonic meta-atoms, revealing isotopic and Zeeman-like effects in their resonance spectra through a novel analogy to atomic physics.

Contribution

It introduces a new analogy between photonic meta-atoms and soft-core atoms, explaining complex spectral phenomena with a simple model.

Findings

Spectral resonances are influenced by higher-order dispersive effects.

Frequency shifts in resonances include isotopic and isomeric contributions.

A generic mechanism for Zeeman-like splitting of resonance lines is demonstrated.

Abstract

We study photonic meta-atoms, a unique class of composite solitary wave, supported in nonlinear waveguides. We establish an analogy to one-dimensional soft-core atoms, allowing to describe the complex dynamics via concepts from atomic physics. Higher-order dispersive effects cause specific spectral resonances characteristic for the eigenspectrum of a meta-atom. We demonstrate that subtle changes in this level spectrum causes frequency shifts of the resonances. These shifts consist of isotopic and isomeric contributions that can be distinguished in terms of a simple model. We further demonstrate a generic mechanism that causes a Zeeman-like splitting of resonance lines.