An all-optical event horizon in an optical analogue of a laval nozzle

Abstract

The formal analogy between the propagation of coherent light in a medium with Kerr nonlinearity and the flow of a dissipationless liquid is exploited in a demonstration of an all-optical event horizon in an optical analogue of the aeronautical Laval nozzle. This establishes a unique experimental platform, in which one can observe and study very unusual dynamics of classical and quantum fluctuations, and in particular an analogue of the Hawking radiation emitted by astrophysical black holes. We present a detailed theoretical analysis of these dynamics, and demonstrate experimentally the formation of such an event horizon in a suitably-shaped waveguide structure. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2013.