Trapping of optical pulse in negative index material via Kerr effect

Abstract

Kerr non-linearity can induce epsilon-near-zero material characteristics in negative index material when incident pulse intensity is at its threshold value. Such Kerr induced epsilon-near-zero regime in negative index material, where group velocity approaches zero and phase velocity diverges, is ideal for strong exciton -photon interaction that can lead to the formation of polaritons oscillating between photonic and excitonic states with frequency \(\frac{{\Omega_{R} }}{\sqrt \hbar }\), \(\Omega_{R}\) being the Rabi frequency. Quantum mechanical analysis using polariton dynamics shows that the optical pulse will be self-trapped in Kerr induced epsilon-near-zero regime and, thereby, suggest that maintaining the intensity of an incident light pulse at the threshold value in negative index material may be an alternative means to trap light, unlike slow light, stopped light or stationary light generated conventionally through electromagnetically induced transparency.