Observation of Defect States in PT-Symmetric Optical Lattices

    Authors

    A. Regensburger; M. A. Miri; C. Bersch; J. Nager; G. Onishchukov; D. N. Christodoulides;U. Peschel

    Comments

    Authors: contact us about adding a copy of your work at STARS@ucf.edu

    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Phys. Rev. Lett.

    Keywords

    NON-HERMITIAN HAMILTONIANS; REAL; SPECTRA; MODES; LASER; Physics, Multidisciplinary

    Abstract

    We provide the first experimental demonstration of defect states in parity-time (PT) symmetric mesh-periodic potentials. Our results indicate that these localized modes can undergo an abrupt phase transition in spite of the fact that they remain localized in a PT-symmetric periodic environment. Even more intriguing is the possibility of observing a linearly growing radiation emission from such defects provided their eigenvalue is associated with an exceptional point that resides within the continuum part of the spectrum. Localized complex modes existing outside the band-gap regions are also reported along with their evolution dynamics.

    Journal Title

    Physical Review Letters

    Volume

    110

    Issue/Number

    22

    Publication Date

    1-1-2013

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    5

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000319682200013

    ISSN

    0031-9007

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