Nonlinearly induced PT transition in photonic systems.
We study the effect of nonlinearity on systems with periodic parity-time (PT) symmetry, and show that nonlinearity can transform the system from broken to full PT symmetry and vice versa. Furthermore, we show that even when the nonlinearity is insufficient to induce a transition from broken to full PT symmetry, still, the wave functions neither decay nor diverge, despite the fact that the system has a complex eigenvalue spectrum. Rather, the amplitudes of the wavefunctions oscillate around the transition point. Our results apply to a wide variety of systems in optics and beyond.
Physics Department and the Solid State Institute, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel.
Yaakov
Y
Lumer
Physics Department and the Solid State Institute, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel.
Yonatan
Y
Plotnik
Physics Department and the Solid State Institute, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel.
Mikael C
MC
Rechtsman
Physics Department and the Solid State Institute, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel.
Mordechai
M
Segev