Bloch-dipole-Zener Oscillations in Binary Parabolic Optical Waveguide Arrays

We have studied the propagation and Zener tunneling of light in the binary parabolic optical waveguide arrays (BPOWA) consisting of two evanescently coupled dissimilar optical waveguides. BPOWA attains two minibands with a gap at the zone edge due to Bragg reflections. Various superposition of optical oscillations and Zener tunneling are identified for different parameters on the phase diagram. In particular, both Bloch-Zener oscillation [1] and Bloch-dipole-Zener oscillation are obtained in the BPOWA by the field-evolution analysis. The research results may have potential applications in optical splitting and waveguiding devices and shed light on the coherent phenomena in lattice structures [2]. \\[4pt] [1] F. Dreisow, A. Szameit, M. Heinrich, T. Pertsch, S. Nolte, A. Tunnermann, and S. Longhi, ``Bloch-Zener Oscillations in Binary Superlattices,'' Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 076802 (2009). \\[0pt] [2] M. J. Zheng, G. Wang, and K. W. Yu, ``Tunable Hybridization at Mid Zone and Anomalous Bloch-Zener Oscillations in Optical Waveguide Ladders,'' Opt. Lett. (in press).