Fractal waveguide arrays induce maximal localization

Abstract

The ability to transmit light through an array of closely packed waveguides while minimizing interwaveguide coupling has important implications for fields such as discrete imaging and telecommunications. Proposals for achieving these effects have leveraged phenomena ranging from Floquet-induced flat bands to Anderson localization. Here we demonstrate that, for strongly detuned waveguides, optimal localization is achieved not by disorder but by fractal potentials. We further show that, in both 1D and 2D, these structures possess a localization-delocalization phase transition.