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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 43: Photonik III

Q 43.1: Talk

Thursday, March 13, 2008, 14:00–14:15, 2B/C

Discreteness in Time — •Christoph Bersch, Georgy Onishchukov, and Ulf Peschel — Institut für Optik, Information und Photonik (Max-Planck Forschungsgruppe), Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Günther-Scharowsky-Str. 1 / Bau 24, 91058 Erlangen

In the past nonlinear optics was restricted to homogenous systems. Only recently it was shown that periodically modulated transverse index structures can effectively discretize continuous space, thus allowing for the observation of completely new phenomena of wave propagation and soliton formation. We show that respective concepts can be transferred to the temporal domain. The idea is to launch a periodical amplitude-modulated field, which forms an effective potential for a signal wave propagating at a different wavelength. The advantage of temporal systems is that light can propagate in fibers over tens of kilometers, a span which can again be extended by several orders of magnitude by including optical amplification. In addition, time windows are basically not restricted thus providing almost unlimited space for transverse evolution. Although our main target is to reproduce spatial effects in the temporal domain, the controlled interaction of optical pulses with a temporal lattice could add new degrees of freedom to pulse shaping, regeneration and processing.