Intrinsic Negative Mass from Nonlinearity

F. Di Mei, P. Caramazza, D. Pierangeli, G. Di Domenico, H. Ilan, A. J. Agranat, P. Di Porto, and E. DelRe
Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 153902 – Published 14 April 2016
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Abstract

We propose and provide experimental evidence of a mechanism able to support negative intrinsic effective mass. The idea is to use a shape-sensitive nonlinearity to change the sign of the mass in the leading linear propagation equation. Intrinsic negative-mass dynamics is reported for light beams in a ferroelectric crystal substrate, where the diffusive photorefractive nonlinearity leads to a negative-mass Schrödinger equation. The signature of inverted dynamics is the observation of beams repelled from strongly guiding integrated waveguides irrespective of wavelength and intensity and suggests shape-sensitive nonlinearity as a basic mechanism leading to intrinsic negative mass.

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  • Received 17 November 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.153902

© 2016 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Nonlinear Dynamics

Authors & Affiliations

F. Di Mei1,2, P. Caramazza1, D. Pierangeli1, G. Di Domenico1,2, H. Ilan3, A. J. Agranat3, P. Di Porto1, and E. DelRe1,4,*

  • 1Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Roma “La Sapienza,” 00185 Rome, Italy
  • 2Center for Life Nanoscience@Sapienza, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, 00161 Rome, Italy
  • 3Applied Physics Department, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 91904 Jerusalem, Israel
  • 4ISC-CNR, Università di Roma “La Sapienza,” 00185 Rome, Italy

  • *eugenio.delre@uniroma1.it

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Issue

Vol. 116, Iss. 15 — 15 April 2016

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