Effective Light Dynamics in Perturbed Photonic Crystals

Abstract

In this work, we rigorously derive effective dynamics for light from within a limited frequency range propagating in a photonic crystal that is modulated on the macroscopic level; the perturbation parameter $\lambda \ll 1$ quantifies the separation of spatial scales. We do that by rewriting the dynamical Maxwell equations as a Schrödinger-type equation and adapting space-adiabatic perturbation theory. Just like in the case of the Bloch electron, we obtain a simpler, effective Maxwell operator for states from within a relevant almost invariant subspace. A correct physical interpretation for the effective dynamics requires to establish two additional facts about the almost invariant subspace: (1) The source-free condition has to be verified and (2) it has to support real states. The second point also forces one to consider a multiband problem even in the simplest possible setting; This turns out to be a major difficulty for the extension of semiclassical methods to the domain of photonic crystals.

47 pages, 1 figure

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• The Schrödinger Formalism of Electromagnetism and Other Classical Waves --- How to Make Quantum-Wave Analogies Rigorous
• Wave packet dynamics in slowly modulated photonic graphene
• On the K-theoretic classification of dynamically stable systems