Stability Through Asymmetry: Modulationally Stable Nonlinear Supermodes of Asymmetric non-Hermitian Optical Couplers

Abstract

We analyze the stability of a non-Hermitian coupler with respect to modulational inhomogeneous perturbations in the presence of unbalanced gain and loss. At the parity-time (PT) symmetry point the coupler is unstable. Suitable symmetry breakings lead to an asymmetric coupler, which hosts nonlinear supermodes. A subset of those broken symmetry cases finally yields nonlinear supermodes which are stable against modulational perturbations. The lack of symmetry requirements will facilitate experimental implementations and relevant photonics applications.

12 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (4)

• Making Sense of Non-Hermitian Hamiltonians
• Nonlinear waves in $\mathcal{P}\mathcal{T}$-symmetric systems
• PT-symmetry breaking and laser-absorber modes in optical scattering systems
• Unidirectional Nonlinear PT-symmetric Optical Structures

Cited by in corpus (21)

• Non-Hermitian Physics
• Parity-Time Symmetry in Non-Hermitian Complex Optical Media
• Enhanced stability, bistability, and exceptional points in saturable active photonic couplers
• Controllable Asymmetric Phase-Locked States of the Fundamental Active Photonic Dimer
• Non-Hermitian phase transition and eigenstate localization induced by asymmetric coupling
• Flat band in two-dimensional non-Hermitian optical lattices
• Spectral Signatures of Exceptional Points and Bifurcations in the Fundamental Active Photonic Dimer
• Flat band induced by the interplay of synthetic magnetic flux and non-Hermiticity
• Attraction centers and PT-symmetric delta-functional dipoles in critical and supercritical self-focusing media
• Nonlinear nonuniform $\mathcal{P}\mathcal{T}$-symmetric Bragg grating structures
• Cavity solitons in a microring dimer with gain and loss
• Asymmetric Si-slot Coupler with Nonreciprocal Response Based on Graphene Saturable Absorption
• Multimode parity-time and loss-compensation symmetries in coupled waveguides with loss and gain
• Dynamical control of solitons in a parity-time-symmetric coupler by periodic management
• Modulational instability in $\mathcal{P}\mathcal{T}$-symmetric Bragg grating structures with saturable nonlinearity
• Polarization dynamics in twisted fiber amplifiers: a non-Hermitian nonlinear dimer model
• Loss compensation symmetry of unequally sized dielectric cylinders with gain and loss
• Loss compensation symmetry in dimers made of gain and lossy nanoparticles
• Robust PT symmetry of two-dimensional fundamental and vortex solitons supported by spatially modulated nonlinearity
• PT-symmetric and antisymmetric nonlinear states in a split potential box
• Non-Lagrangian approach for coupled complex Ginzburg-Landau systems with higher order-dispersion