Observation of discrete-light temporal refraction by moving potentials with broken Galilean invariance

Chengzhi Qin, Han Ye, Shulin Wang, Lange Zhao, Menglin Liu, Yinglan Li, Xinyuan Hu, Chenyu Liu, Bing Wang (), Stefano Longhi () and Peixiang Lu ()
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Chengzhi Qin: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Han Ye: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Shulin Wang: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Lange Zhao: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Menglin Liu: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Yinglan Li: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Xinyuan Hu: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Chenyu Liu: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Bing Wang: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Stefano Longhi: Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32
Peixiang Lu: Huazhong University of Science and Technology

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract Refraction is a basic beam bending effect at two media’s interface. While traditional studies focus on stationary boundaries, moving boundaries or potentials could enable new laws of refractions. Meanwhile, media’s discretization plays a pivotal role in refraction owing to Galilean invariance breaking principle in discrete-wave mechanics, making refraction highly moving-speed dependent. Here, by harnessing a synthetic temporal lattice in a fiber-loop circuit, we observe discrete time refraction by a moving gauge-potential barrier. We unveil the selection rules for the potential moving speed, which can only take an integer v = 1 or fractional v = 1/q (odd q) value to guarantee a well-defined refraction. We observe reflectionless/reflective refractions for v = 1 and v = 1/3 speeds, transparent potentials with vanishing refraction/reflection, refraction of dynamic moving potential and refraction for relativistic Zitterbewegung effect. Our findings may feature applications in versatile time control and measurement for optical communications and signal processing.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-49747-3

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