科研之友
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摘要
Subwavelength confinement of light in nonlinear hyperbolic metamaterials due to formation of spatial solitons has attracted much recent attention because of its seemingly counterintuitive behavior. In order to achieve self-focusing in a hyperbolic wire medium, a nonlinear self-defocusing Kerr medium must be used as a dielectric host. Here we demonstrate that this behavior finds a natural explanation in terms of the analog of gravity. A wave equation describing the propagation of extraordinary light inside hyperbolic metamaterials exhibits (2+1)-dimensional Lorentz symmetry. The role of time in the corresponding effective three-dimensional Minkowski space-time is played by the spatial coordinate aligned with the optical axis of the metamaterial. Nonlinear optical Kerr effect "bends" this space-time resulting in effective gravitational force between extraordinary photons. In order for the effective gravitational constant to be positive, a negative self-defocusing Kerr medium must be used as a host. If gravitational self-interaction is strong enough, the spatial soliton may collapse into a black hole analog.
- 出版日期2013-9-25
