Europhys. Lett., 76 (3), pp. 416-421 (2006)
DOI: 10.1209/epl/i2006-10301-8

Optical Zener-Bloch oscillations in binary waveguide arrays

S. Longhi

Dipartimento di Fisica and Istituto di Fotonica e Nanotecnologie del CNR Politecnico di Milano - Piazza L. da Vinci 32, I-20133 Milano, Italy

longhi@fisi.polimi.it

received 22 June 2006; accepted in final form 18 September 2006
published online 11 October 2006

Abstract
Zener tunneling in a binary array of coupled optical waveguides with transverse index gradient is shown to produce a sequence of regular or irregular beam splitting and beam recombination events superimposed to Bloch oscillations. These periodic or aperiodic Zener-Bloch oscillations provide a clear and visualizable signature in an optical system of coherent multiband dynamics encountered in solid-state or matter-wave systems.

PACS
42.82.Et - Waveguides, couplers, and arrays.
42.65.Sf - Dynamics of nonlinear optical systems; optical instabilities, optical chaos and complexity, and optical spatio-temporal dynamics.

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