We study the combination of the discrete Talbot effect with Bloch-Zener oscillations in binary waveguide arrays (BWAs) under the influence of an external linear potential when the input beam with transverse period $N=2$ is launched into the system. We show that when the Dirac mass $\sigma$ is small enough, the light carpets in BWAs are almost perfectly periodic in both the transverse and longitudinal directions. In this case, light carpets have a longitudinal period equal to the Bloch-Zener oscillation period $z_B$. The discrete Talbot effect in BWAs under the influence of the external potential can be used to switch between various kinds of the light beam distribution at the output of the system with many channels at the same time just by tuning the external potential parameter $\alpha$. In particular, these optical switches operate in the low-power regime because they do not require any nonlinear effects.

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• Photonics
• Waveguide arrays