We analyze stability and generation of discrete gap solitons in weakly coupled optical waveguides. We demonstrate how both stable and unstable solitons can be observed experimentally in the engineered binary waveguide arrays and also reveal a connection between the gap-soliton instabilities and limitations on the mutual beam focusing in periodic photonic structures.

We investigate, experimentally and theoretically, light propagation in one-dimensional waveguide arrays exhibiting a saturable self-defocusing nonlinearity. We demonstrate low-intensity "discrete diffraction", and the high-intensity formation of spatial gap solitons arising from the first band of the transmission spectrum. The waveguide arrays are fabricated by titanium in-diffusion in a photor...

Periodic dielectric materials offer a great deal of control over the propagation of light.1 Usually the basic idea is to design periodic dielectric structures that have a band gap for a particular frequency range. In a recent study2 Meade et al. showed that defects in a three-dimensional (3-D) periodic dielectric material (photonic crystal) can admit localized states within a band gap. It is th...

Proof of concept of a cavity backed slot antenna based on inverted microstrip gap ‎waveguide (IMGW) technology is presented. Since the antenna is operating based on the ‎first resonating mode of the cavity, it is more compact compared to the ordinary cavity ‎backed slot antennas in which the second cavity mode is used for radiation. Furthermore, ‎the proposed antenna element introduces lower lo...

We analyze nonlinear collective effects near surfaces of semi-infinite periodic systems with multi-gap transmission spectra and introduce a novel concept of multi-gap surface solitons as mutually trapped surface states with the components associated with different spectral gaps. We find numerically discrete surface modes in semi-infinite binary waveguide arrays which can support simultaneously ...

We report on the observation of surface gap solitons found to exist at the interface between uniform and periodic dielectric media with defocusing nonlinearity. We demonstrate strong self-trapping at the edge of a LiNbO3 waveguide array and the formation of staggered surface solitons with propagation constant inside the first photonic band gap. We study the crossover between linear repulsion an...

We propose a plasmo-thermomechanical mid-infrared detector operating at 4.3 μm wavelength. The design utilizes an array of the bimetallic fishbone nanowires that are suspended 50 nm above a 1.5 μm × 0.3 μm silicon nitride waveguide to create a leaky wave radiation. Moreover, the thermo-mechanically actuated nanowire will induce evanescent wave modulation that can be detected by the leaky wave o...