Open AccessIntrinsic link of asymmetric reflection and diffraction in non-Hermitian gratings
Author(s) -
Feng Gao,
Yi-Mou Liu,
Xue-Dong Tian,
Cui-Li Cui,
Jin-Hui Wu
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.26.033818
Subject(s) - hermitian matrix , diffraction , optics , physics , grating , reflection (computer programming) , diffraction efficiency , bragg's law , diffraction grating , hermitian function , acousto optics , quantum mechanics , computer science , programming language
Asymmetric reflection in Bragg gratings and asymmetric diffraction in diffraction gratings are both linked to parity-time (PT) symmetry in non-Hermitian optics, but their direct relation has not been examined. To fill this gap, we first consider a PT-symmetric sinusoidal grating to compare the contrast of forward and backward reflectivities and the ratio of ±1-order diffraction efficiencies. Analytical and numerical results show that they change with identical tendencies and peaks at same positions in a wide parameter space, indicating thus an intrinsic link in both PT symmetric and PT broken phases. The underlying physics is found to be that the unbalanced coupling strengths between forward and backward reflected waves are identical to those between 0-order and ±1-order diffracted waves. We then consider a non-Hermitian grating dynamically induced in cold atomic lattices to include higher-order diffractions and corresponding reflections.Full numerical calculations show that the aforementioned findings hold also true in this complicated but practical grating, even in more general non-Hermitian cases beyond the exact PT symmetry.