Nonlinear optics in ferrofluid-based hyperbolic metamaterials

Hyperbolic metamaterials allow for a plethora of non-traditional methods of manipulating light. In this work we implement theoretical proposal of Smolyaninov and Narimanov (Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 067402 (2010)) who demonstrated that extraordinary light waves in hyperbolic metamaterials may exhibit “two times” physics behavior. This behavior is observed via experimental study of nonlinear optics of iron/cobalt ferrofluid-based hyperbolic metamaterial, which shows considerable similarities with gravitation theory. We will present high-resolution images of self-focusing effect in this metamaterial, which were obtained as a function of light intensity. Appearance of self-focused filaments analogous to self-gravitating bodies was observed. The dynamics of this filaments resembling gravitational attraction will be discussed.