Spatiotemporal cascading of dielectric waveguides [Invited]

Abstract

Photonic time interfaces, as the temporal analogue of spatial interfaces between two media, consist of a rapid change of the electromagnetic properties of a material (such as permittivity, ε, and permeability, μ) while the wave is present in the material. Here we exploit cascading of such time interfaces in spatially cascaded guided-wave structures such as slab waveguides and ring resonators by considering that the relative permittivity of the cladding of dielectric waveguides is rapidly changed at different moments of time from εclad_1 to εclad_2, while the material of the core remains unchanged in time. It is shown how such time-dependent cladding can enable frequency conversion within the space-time dielectric ring resonator and slab waveguides due to an induced modification of the effective refractive index of the mode propagating within such photonic device. Cascaded frequency conversion is achieved in such cascaded space-time dielectric waveguides and ring resonators, showing how the combination of space and time interfaces can offer further opportunities for manipulation of light-matter interaction using four-dimensional (4D) photonic structures.