Non-Hermitian trimers: PT-symmetry versus pseudo-Hermiticity. (13th June 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Suchkov, Sergey V; Fotsa-Ngaffo, Fernande; Kenfack-Jiotsa, Aurelien; Tikeng, Arnaud D; Kofane, Timoleon C; Kivshar, Yuri S; Sukhorukov, Andrey A
• Is Part Of: New journal of physics. Volume 18:Number 6(2016:Jun.)
• Publication Date: 2016-06-13
• Subjects: pseudo-Hermiticity -- PT-symmetry -- scattering -- gain and loss; Physics -- Periodicals; Physics; Periodicals; 530.05
• DOI: 10.1088/1367-2630/18/6/065005
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1367-2630

Abstract

Abstract: We study a structure composed of three coupled waveguides with gain and loss, a non-Hermitian trimer. We demonstrate that the mode spectrum can be entirely real if the waveguides are placed in a special order and at certain distances between each other. Such structures generally lack a spatial symmetry, in contrast to parity-time symmetric trimers which are known to feature a real spectrum. We also determine a threshold for wave amplification and analyse the scattering properties of such non-conservative systems embedded into a chain of conservative waveguides.