Light-controlled perfect absorption of light

Abstract

We study coherent perfect absorption (CPA) of light in a Kerr nonlinear metal-dielectric composite medium, illuminated from the opposite ends. Elementary symmetry considerations reveal that equality of the incident light intensities is a prerequisite to ensure CPA in both linear and nonlinear systems for specific system parameters. We also derive the sufficient conditions for having CPA. We further show that while CPA in a linear system is insensitive to the incident power level, that in a nonlinear system can be achieved only for discrete intensities with interesting hysteretic response. Our unified formulation of CPA and waveguiding identifies them as opposite scattering phenomena. We further investigate light-induced CPA in on- and off- resonant systems.