TY - JOUR
T1 - Wave tunneling and hysteresis in nonlinear junctions
AU - Wan, Wenjie
AU - Muenzel, Stefan
AU - Fleischer, Jason W.
PY - 2010/2/18
Y1 - 2010/2/18
N2 - We consider the nonlinear tunneling of a plane wave through a small barrier potential in a medium with self-defocusing, or repulsive, interactions. We show that nonlinearity can either suppress or enhance transmission rates, determined by whether the initial kinetic energy is above or below the barrier height. Associated with this threshold is the appearance of two distinct hysteresis loops, going clockwise or counterclockwise, respectively. Spatial dynamics upon reflection and transmission reveals the formation of dispersive shock waves (dark soliton trains) due to phase jumps at the interfaces and wave steepening during propagation. The results are demonstrated experimentally for optical wave tunneling through a refractive index defect but will hold for any Schrödinger system that contains a nonlinear junction.
AB - We consider the nonlinear tunneling of a plane wave through a small barrier potential in a medium with self-defocusing, or repulsive, interactions. We show that nonlinearity can either suppress or enhance transmission rates, determined by whether the initial kinetic energy is above or below the barrier height. Associated with this threshold is the appearance of two distinct hysteresis loops, going clockwise or counterclockwise, respectively. Spatial dynamics upon reflection and transmission reveals the formation of dispersive shock waves (dark soliton trains) due to phase jumps at the interfaces and wave steepening during propagation. The results are demonstrated experimentally for optical wave tunneling through a refractive index defect but will hold for any Schrödinger system that contains a nonlinear junction.
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U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.073903
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.073903
M3 - Article
C2 - 20366886
AN - SCOPUS:77249113296
SN - 0031-9007
VL - 104
JO - Physical review letters
JF - Physical review letters
IS - 7
M1 - 073903
ER -