We study interaction of a soliton in a parity-time (PT) symmetric coupler which has local perturbation of the coupling constant. Such a defect does not change the PT-symmetry of the system, but locally can achieve the exceptional point. We found that the symmetric solitons after interaction with the defect either transform into breathers or blow up. The dynamics of anti-symmetric solitons is more complex, showing domains of successive broadening of the beam and of the beam splitting in two outwards propagating solitons, in addition to the single breather generation and blow up. All the effects are preserved when the coupling strength in the center of the defect deviates from the exceptional point. If the coupling is strong enough the only observable outcome of the soliton-defect interaction is the generation of the breather.

http://arxiv.org/abs/1405.1829
Optics (physics.optics)

We propose a scheme of creating a tunable highly nonlinear defect in a one-dimensional photonic crystal. The defect consists of an atomic cell filled in with two isotopes of three-level atoms. The probe-field refractive index of the defect can be made parity-time (PT) symmetric, which is achieved by proper combination of a control field and of Stark shifts induced by a far-off-resonance field. In the PT-symmetric system families of stable nonlinear defect modes can be formed by the probe field.

http://arxiv.org/abs/1309.2839

Optics (physics.optics); Pattern Formation and Solitons (nlin.PS)

We propose a scheme to realize parity-time (\(\mathcal{PT}\)) symmetry via electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). The system we consider is an ensemble of cold four-level atoms with an EIT core. We show that the cross-phase modulation contributed by an assisted field, the optical lattice potential provided by a far-detuned laser field, and the optical gain resulted from an incoherent pumping can be used to construct a \(\mathcal{PT}\)-symmetric complex optical potential for probe field propagation in a controllable way. Comparing with previous study, the present scheme uses only a single atomic species and hence is easy for the physical realization of \(\mathcal{PT}\)-symmetric Hamiltonian via atomic coherence.

http://arxiv.org/abs/1307.2695
Quantum Physics (quant-ph)

We show that a vapor of multilevel atoms driven by far-off resonant laser beams, with possibility of interference of two Raman resonances, is highly efficient for creating parity-time (PT) symmetric profiles of the probe-field refractive index, whose real part is symmetric and imaginary part is anti-symmetric in space. The spatial modulation of the susceptibility is achieved by proper combination of standing-wave strong control fields and of Stark shifts induced by a far-off-resonance laser field. As particular examples we explore a mixture of isotopes of Rubidium atoms and design a PT-symmetric lattice and a parabolic refractive index with a linear imaginary part.

http://arxiv.org/abs/1212.5486

Optics (physics.optics)