Nonlinear Bloch wave dynamics in photonic Aharonov–Bohm cagesNonlinear Bloch wave dynamics in photonic Aharonov–Bohm cages Peer-Reviewed Journal Publication Δημοσίευση σε Περιοδικό με Κριτές 2023-02-152021enD.G.A. acknowledges support from the Polisimulator project co-financed by Greece and the EU Regional Development Fund.We study the properties of nonlinear Bloch waves in a diamond chain waveguide lattice in the presence of a synthetic magnetic flux. In the linear limit, the lattice exhibits a completely flat (wavevector k-independent) band structure, resulting in perfect wave localization, known as Aharonov–Bohm caging. We find that in the presence of nonlinearity, the Bloch waves become sensitive to k, exhibiting bifurcations and instabilities. Performing numerical beam propagation simulations using the tight-binding model, we show how the instabilities can result in either the spontaneous or controlled formation of localized modes, which are immobile and remain pinned in place due to the synthetic magnetic flux.http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/APL Photonics63Chang_et_al_APL Photon._6(3)_2021.pdfChania [Greece]Library of TUC2023-02-15application/pdf2.5 MBfree Chang Nana Gundogdu Sinan Leykam Daniel Angelakis Dimitrios Αγγελακης Δημητριος Kou SuPeng Flach Sergej Maluckov Aleksandra American Institute of Physics Synthetic Gauge Field Photonics Gauge field theory Bloch wave