Reflection and Transmission of Airy Pulse from Controllable Periodic Temporal Boundary

Abstract

The interaction between two Airy pulses propagating at different wavelengths is numerically investigated. The periodically varying peak intensity of the soliton that emerges from stronger Airy pulse (pump pulse) leads to the formation of periodic temporal boundary. The relatively weaker Airy pulse (probe pulse) on interaction with this boundary gets partially reflected as well as transmitted. As a result, the probe pulse spectrum splits into two parts- the reflected pulse spectrum undergoes redshift while transmitted pulse exhibits blueshift. The probe pulse witnesses maximum reflection when point of interaction lies on the intensity maxima of the emergent soliton from pump Airy pulse. On the other hand, maximum transmission occurs when probe Airy pulse interacts at the intensity minima of the soliton. The reflection and transmission processes can be manipulated by tuning the time delay between pump and probe Airy pulses. In the case of a sufficiently intense pump pulse, the temporal boundary mimics the artificial optical event horizon, and the weak probe Airy pulse is completely reflected. This phenomenon is equivalent to the temporal version of total internal reflection. The results of the study hold potential applications in optical manipulation and temporal waveguiding.