Scattering In Pt- And Rt-Symmetric Multimode Waveguides: Generalized Conservation Laws And Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking Beyond One Dimension

Abstract

We extend the generalized conservation law of light propagating in a one-dimensional PT-symmetric system, i.e., |T-1|=RLRR for the transmittance T and the reflectance RL,R from the left and right, to a multimode waveguide with either PT or RT symmetry, in which higher dimensional investigations are necessary. These conservation laws exist not only in a matrix form for the transmission and reflection matrices; they also exist in a scalar form for real-valued quantities by defining generalized transmittance and reflectance. We then discuss how a multimode PT-symmetric waveguide can be used to observe spontaneous symmetry breaking of the scattering matrix, which typically requires tuning the non-Hermiticity of the system (i.e., the strength of gain and loss). Here the advantage of using a multimode waveguide is the elimination of tuning any system parameters: the transverse mode order m plays the role of the symmetry-breaking parameter, and one observes the symmetry breaking by simply performing a scattering experiment in each waveguide channel at a single frequency and fixed strength of gain and loss.

Publication Date

12-30-2015

Publication Title

Physical Review A - Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics

Volume

92

Issue

6

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.92.062135

Socpus ID

84952879819 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/84952879819

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