PT-symmetry breaking and laser-absorber modes in optical scattering systems

• Main Authors: Chong, Yidong, Ge, Li, Stone, A. Douglas
• Other Authors: School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Science::Physics::Optics and light
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/101037; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/18338
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Using a scattering matrix formalism, we derive the general scattering properties of optical structures that are symmetric under a combination of parity and time reversal (PT ). We demonstrate the existence of a transition between PT -symmetric scattering eigenstates, which are norm preserving, and symmetry-broken pairs of eigenstates exhibiting net amplification and loss. The system proposed by Longhi [Phys. Rev. A 82, 031801 (2010).], which can act simultaneously as a laser and coherent perfect absorber, occurs at discrete points in the broken-symmetry phase, when a pole and zero of the S matrix coincide.