IFIMAC researchers Jaime Abad-Arredondo, Francisco J. García Vidal and Antonio I. Fernández Domínguez, together with colleagues at AMOLF in Amsterdam have demonstrated spontaneous symmetry breaking in the diffraction of a laser-driven grating with memory in its nonlinear response. They observe, experimentally and theoretically, asymmetric diffraction even when the grating and illumination are symmetric. The analysis reveals how diffracted waves can spontaneously acquire momentum parallel to the lattice vector in quantities unconstrained by the grating period. These findings point to numerous opportunities for imaging, sensing, and information processing with nonlinear periodic systems, which can leverage a much richer diffractive response than their linear counterparts. [Full article]
