Dynamic Photonic Structures: Stopping, Storage and Time

The use of dynamic photonic structures opens fascinating new possibilities for controlling the properties of light. The general idea is to create a coupled resonator array such that a light pulse can be held in the structure for a sufficiently long time, and to modulate the refractive index of the system while the pulse is in the system. Doing so allows the spectrum of the pulse to be molded almost arbitrarily with small refractive index modulations, leading to highly nontrivial information-processing capabilities on chip. As examples of such capabilities, here we show that light pulses can be stopped, stored, and time-reversed with these dynamic systems. 1