The research opens the door to the creation of new integrated photonic circuits. “With this we can make copies or systems similar to the networks that surround us, for example the Internet or energy networks,” explains Marcel Clerc, academic at the Department of Physics of the Faculty of Physical and Mathematical Sciences of the University of Chile.
The experiment used a liquid crystal valve with optical retroinjection to modify parameters such as light and voltage in real time. The work used techniques to create a model that explained what was observed in the experiments, and carried out computer simulations to predict the observed phenomena.
The research lasted two years and was carried out at the Laboratory of Robust Phenomena in Optics (LAFER) of the Department of Physics of the FCFM, University of Chile. The students participated in the work: Pedro Aguilera, Manuel Díaz, Amaru Moya and David Pinto, from the Physics Department of the FCFM of the University of Chile. Karin Alfaro Bittner worked for the Rey Juan Carlos University and René Rojas worked for the PUCV.
The next step would be to use this propagation to understand the behavior of networks experimentally. “Our theory also opens new possibilities for future experimental studies,” comments Clerc. Some examples include the Internet, electrical networks, and neural signals.
The article titled “Nonlinear wave propagation in a bistable optical chain with nonreciprocal coupling” will be published in the journal Communications Physics, which belongs to Nature. To see the published file check the following link https://www.nature.com/articles/s42005-024-01690-x
