Conical diffraction in honeycomb lattices

Conical diffraction in honeycomb lattices is analyzed. This phenomenon arises in nonlinear Schroedinger equations with honeycomb lattice potentials. In the tight-binding approximation the wave envelope is governed by a nonlinear classical Dirac equation. Numerical simulations show that the Dirac equation and the lattice equation have the same conical diffraction properties. Similar conical diffraction occurs in both the linear and nonlinear regimes. The Dirac system reveals the underlying mechanism for the existence of conical diffraction in honeycomb lattices.