Tailoring chaotic motion of microcavity photons in ray and wave dynamics by tuning the curvature of space

Microcavity photon dynamics in curved space is an emerging interesting area at the crossing point of nanophotonics, chaotic science, and non-Euclidean geometry. We report the sharp difference between the regular and chaotic motions of cavity photons subjected to the varying space curvature. While the island modes of regular motion rise in the phase diagram in the curved space, the chaotic modes show special mechanisms to adapt to the space curvature, including the fast diffusion of ray dynamics, and the localization and hybridization of the Husimi wavepackets among different periodic orbits. These observations are unique effects enabled by the combination of the chaotic trajectory, the wave nature of light, and the non-Euclidean orbital motion, and therefore make the system a versatile optical simulator for chaotic science under quantum mechanics in curved space-time.