PT-symmetric coupler with a coupling defect: soliton interaction with exceptional point

Abstract

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.

4 pages, 6 figures; accepted by Opt. Lett

References in corpus (4)

• The physics of exceptional points
• Unidirectional Nonlinear PT-symmetric Optical Structures
• Breathers in PT-symmetric optical couplers
• Stable dark solitons in PT-symmetric dual-core waveguides

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Nonlinear waves in $\mathcal{P}\mathcal{T}$-symmetric systems
• Nonlinear switching and solitons in PT-symmetric photonic systems
• Parametric instability of non-Hermitian systems near the exceptional point
• Diffraction control in PT-symmetric photonic lattices: from beam rectification to dynamic localization
• Two-dimensional solitons in conservative and parity-time-symmetric triple-core waveguides with cubic-quintic nonlinearity
• Waveguides with Absorbing Boundaries: Nonlinearity Controlled by an Exceptional Point and Solitons
• Metastable two-component solitons near an exceptional point
• Emergence of Exceptional Points in Periodic Metastructures with Hidden PT-symmetric Defects