Observation of localized flat-band modes in a quasi-one-dimensional photonic rhombic lattice

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate the photonic realization of a dispersionless flat-band in a quasi-one-dimensional photonic lattice fabricated by ultrafast laser inscription. In the nearest neighbor tight binding approximation, the lattice supports two dispersive and a non-dispersive (flat) band. We experimentally excite superpositions of flat-band eigen modes at the input of the photonic lattice and show the diffractionless propagation of the input states due to their infinite effective mass. In the future, the use of photonic rhombic lattices, together with the successful implementation of a synthetic gauge field, will enable the observation of Aharonov-Bohm photonic caging.