Coherent centres for light amplification in coupled waveguide arrays

Abstract In the study of optical lattices of waveguides, incorporation of nearest neighbour coupling and controllable nonlinearity can result in many interesting phenomena such as discrete diffraction, Anderson localization, diffusive transport, self-defocusing, discrete spatial solitons and discrete photonic resonances. The question of reflecting boundaries at the surfaces has been ignored most often. In the present study, we have shown through a simple one-dimensional waveguide array that light propagation gets completely modified along the length if effects from reflecting boundaries are also considered. We have shown only by considering the coupling on between neighbouring waveguides that there are periodic maximum power centres along the length of the excited waveguides which can be desirable for placing optical amplifiers in short or long distance communication and other applications.