Phason dynamics in nonlinear photonic quasicrystals

Barak Freedman, Ron Lifshitz, Jason W. Fleischer, Mordechai Segev*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

62 Scopus citations

Abstract

We study the dynamics of phasons in a nonlinear photonic quasicrystal. The photonic quasicrystal is formed by optical induction, and its dynamics is initiated by allowing the light waves inducing the quasicrystal to nonlinearly interact with one another. We show quantitatively that, when phason strain is introduced in a controlled manner, it relaxes through the nonlinear interactions within the photonic quasicrystal. We establish experimentally that the relaxation rate of phason strain in the quasicrystal is substantially lower than the relaxation rate of phonon strain, as predicted for atomic quasicrystals. Finally, we monitor and identify individual atomic-scale phason flips occurring in the photonic quasicrystal as its phason strain relaxes, as well as noise-induced phason fluctuations.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)776-781
Number of pages6
JournalNature Materials
Volume6
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2007

Funding

FundersFunder number
German–Israeli DIP Project
Israel–USA Binational Science Foundation
US National Science Foundation
Israel Science Foundation

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