Ponderomotive forces on waves in modulated media

Abstract

Nonlinear interactions of waves via instantaneous cross-phase modulation can be cast in the same way as ponderomotive wave-particle interactions in high-frequency electromagnetic field. The ponderomotive effect arises when rays of a probe wave scatter off perturbations of the underlying medium produced by a second, modulation wave, much like charged particles scatter off a quasiperiodic field. Parallels with the point-particle dynamics, which itself is generalized by this theory, lead to new methods of wave manipulation, including asymmetric barriers for light.