Buffering and trapping ultrashort optical pulses in concatenated Bragg gratings

Localization-to-delocalization transition of light in frequency-tuned photonic moiré lattices

We demonstrate in a numerical manner the intriguing localization-to-delocalization transition of light in frequency-tuned photonic moiré lattices, both in the zero-order and the higher-order regimes of light waves. We present a different technique to realize the composite photonic lattices, by means of two relatively twisted sublattices with different modulated lattice constants. Even though various kinds of photonic patterns including the commensurable and the incommensurable lattices can be well constructed, the observed transition between the localization and the delocalization of light field is moiré angle-independent. This angle-insensitive property was not reported before, and cannot be achieved by those photonic moiré lattices that are all moiré angle-dependent. We reveal that the obtained phase transition of light is robust to the changes of refractive index modulation of the photonic lattices. Moreover, we reveal that the effect of moiré angle-independent transition of light can be extended to the higher-order vortex light field, hence allowing prediction, for the first time to our knowledge, of both the localization and the delocalization of the vortex light field in the photonic lattices.

Directional release of the stored ultrashort light pulses from a tunable Bragg-grating microcavity

We demonstrate numerically the ability for directionally releasing the stored ultrashort light pulse from a microcavity by means of two-pulse nonlinear interaction in a cascading Bragg grating structure. The setting is built by a chirped grating segment which is linked through a uniform segment, including a tunable microcavity located at the junction between the two components. Our simulations show that stable trapping of an ultrashort light pulse can be achieved in the setting. The stored light pulse in a microcavity can be possibly released, by nonlinearly interacting with the lateral incident control pulse. Importantly, by breaking the symmetry of potential cavity, the stably trapped light pulse can be successfully released from the microcavity to the expected direction. Owing to the induced optical nonlinearity, the released ultrashort light pulses could preserve their shapes, propagating in a form of Bragg grating solitons through the uniform component, which is in contrast to the extensively studied light pulse trappings in photonic crystal cavities which operate at the linear regime.

Slow-light all-optical soliton diode based on tailored Bragg-grating structure

All-optical soliton diode (AOSD) is proposed based on a sandwich nonlinear Bragg-grating structure: a linearly chirped Bragg-grating linked to a uniform Bragg-grating and again to a chirped Bragg-grating. The nonreciprocity is achieved by introducing two spatially asymmetric chirped Bragg-gratings with optical nonlinearity. High transmission ratio up to 150 is obtained when launching a picosecond Gaussian pulse into the setting. We find that such pulses in a form of solitons propagate at a rather small velocity (<0.03c) when pulse wavelength is selected in the vicinity of photonic bandgap.