The Zero-n Gap Soliton

Abstract

Periodic structures consisting of alternating layers of positive index and negative index materials possess a novel band gap at the frequency at which the average refractive index is zero. We show that in the presence of a Kerr nonlinearity, this zero-n gap can switch from low transmission to a perfectly transmitting state, forming a nonlinear resonance or gap soliton in the process. This zero-n gap soliton is omnidirectional in contrast to the usual Bragg gap soliton of positive index periodic structures