Spatial solitons at interfaces:
nonparaxial refraction & giant Goos-Hänchen shifts

McCoy, EA; Christian, JM; McDonald, GS

Abstract

The behaviour of light at interfaces underpins, in an essential way, the entire field of optics: almost all technological device designs and architectures rely on the interplay between material mismatches (that define the interface) and the 'degree of obliqueness' of the incident, reflected, and refracted waves. The seminal works on nonlinear beam refraction [1] considered scalar bright spatial solitons impinging on the interface between two Kerr-type media with different dielectric parameters, but where all angles (relative to the interface) were constrained to be near-negligibly small. Our Group has been developing new mathematical and computational tools to describe arbitrary-angle¬ refraction of similar beams [2]. The most recent research has been considering more general material aspects (e.g., from non-Kerr nonlinearities) and also giant Goos-Hänchen (GH) shifts [2,3]. Close to a critical point (which depends upon a complicated interplay between finite-beam characteristics and material mismatches), the GH shift shows a remarkable sensitivity to incidence angle, and also to medium nonlinearity. Indeed, we believe we have uncovered GH shifts that are unprecedented in magnitude, perhaps the largest ever predicted. A universal Snell’s law describing beam refraction has also been tested directly against full numerical calculations.
References:
[1] A. B. Aceves, J. V. Moloney, and A. C. Newell, Phys. Rev. A 39, 1809 (1989); Phys. Rev. A 39 1828 (1989).
[2] J. Sánchez-Curto, P. Chamorro-Posada, and G. S. McDonald, Opt. Lett. 32, 1126 (2007); Opt. Lett. 36, 3605 (2011).
[3] F. Goos and H. Hänchen, Ann. Phys. 1, 333 (1947).

Citation

nonparaxial refraction & giant Goos-Hänchen shifts. Poster presented at College of Science and Technology Research Showcase Day, University of Salford, Greater Manchester, UK

• Presentation Conference Type: Poster
• Conference Name: College of Science and Technology Research Showcase Day
• Conference Location: University of Salford, Greater Manchester, UK
• Start Date: Jun 20, 2012
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2012
• Deposit Date: Jul 17, 2012
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 5, 2016
• Additional Information: Event Type : Conference