Guided modes in left-handed waveguides

We investigate basic properties of linear guided modes in a waveguide slab with the core of a material with simultaneously negative effective permittivity and permeability surrounded by a normal dielectric cladding. The existence and dispersion of all possible types of guided modes have been studied in detail. We demonstrate that the two orthogonally polarized, TE and TM slow guided modes, with the same frequency and the same wave number can exist simultaneously. Their group velocities, however, can be parallel or anti-parallel

Counterpropagating solitons at boundary of photonic lattices

We study numerically the interaction of two counterpropagating (CP) optical beams near the boundary of a truncated one-dimensional photonic lattice. We demonstrate that the mutual coupling of beams suppresses the effective repulsion from the lattice edge, resulting in the formation of CP surface solitons. Such localized beams may propagate in the same, as well as in neighboring, waveguides. We also reveal that the lattice disorder reduces substantially the threshold power for the formation of CP surface states