Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking in Photonic Lattices: Theory and Experiment

TL;DR

This paper investigates spontaneous symmetry breaking in photonic lattices through theoretical analysis and experimental demonstration, revealing a bifurcation from symmetric to asymmetric states in a double-well waveguide system.

Contribution

It provides a combined theoretical and experimental study of symmetry breaking in photonic lattices, including a Galerkin truncation analysis and experimental validation.

Findings

Bifurcation from symmetric to asymmetric states identified

Numerical and experimental evidence of symmetry breaking

Quantitative analysis of the bifurcation process

Abstract

We examine an example of spontaneous symmetry breaking in a double-well waveguide with a symmetric potential. The ground state of the system beyond a critical power becomes asymmetric. The effect is illustrated numerically, and quantitatively analyzed via a Galerkin truncation that clearly shows the bifurcation from a symmetric to an asymmetric steady state. This phenomenon is also demonstrated experimentally when a probe beam is launched appropriately into an optically induced photonic lattice in a photorefractive material.