† Corresponding author. E-mail:
Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11674107, 61475049, 11775083, 61875057, 61774062, and 61771205), the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, China (Grant No. 2015A030313374), and the Special Funds for the Cultivation of Guangdong College Students’ Scientifific and Techonlogical Innovation, China (Grant No. pdjhb0139).
In this paper, we design a one-dimensional anti-PT-symmetric ring optical waveguide network (1D APTSPROWN). Using the three-material network equation and the generalized Floquet–Bloch theorem, we investigate its photonic mode distribution, and observe weak extremum spontaneous anti-PT-symmetric breaking points (WBPs) and strong extremum spontaneous anti-PT-symmetric breaking points (SBPs). Then the transmission spectrum is obtained by using the three-material network equation and the generalized eigenfunction method. The 1D APTSPROWN is found to generate ultra-strong transmission near SBPs and ultra-weak transmission near WBPs and SBPs, with the maximal and minimal transmissions being 4.08× 1012 and 7.08× 10−52, respectively. The maximal transmission has the same order of magnitude as the best-reported result. It is not only because the distribution of photonic modes generated by the 1D APTSROWN results in the coupling resonance and anti-resonance, but also because the 1D APTSROWN composed of materials whose real parts of refractive indices are positive and negative has two kinds of phase effects, which results in the resonance and anti-resonance effects in the same kind of photonic modes. This demonstrates that the anti-PT-symmetric and PT-symmetric optical waveguide networks are quite different, which leads to a more in-depth understanding of anti-PT-symmetric and PT-symmetric structures. This work has the potential for paving a new approach to designing single photon emitters, optical amplifiers, and high-efficiency optical energy saver devices.
Controlling the propagation of the electromagnetic (EM) waves has been an important aspect of virtually every application that involves optical components. In 1998, by constructing a parity–time-symmetric (PT-symmetric) dynamic system, Bender et al.[1,2] found that there exist PT-symmetric breaking points in the system. In a PT-symmetric system, the Hamiltonian operator H, parity operator P, and time operator T still satisfy {H, PT} = 0. While the imaginary part of the potential function is beyond the value of PT-symmetric breaking points, the energy eigenvalues are complex numbers. In 2007, El-Ganainy et al.[3] first introduced the concept of parity–time (PT) symmetry into the optical system by founding a PT-symmetric optical system whose refractive index satisfies the condition: n(x) = n*( – x). Since then, several extraordinary optical properties[3–14] have been observed in PT-symmetric optical systems, such as power oscillations,[4–6] double refraction,[4] unidirectional invisibility,[7–10] absorption enhanced transmission,[11,12] coherent perfect absorbers and lasers[13,14] and so on. In Hermitian systems, these properties are not available.
In 2013, Ge et al.[15] designed an anti-PT-symmetric optical structure, whose refractive index satisfies the condition: n(x) = – n* ( – x), and the H, P, and T meet the condition: {H, PT} = 0. This artificial optical system has also aroused great interest[15–20] due to several extraordinary phenomena such as flat broadband light transport,[16] chiral mode conversion,[17] and ultra-strong transmission and reflection,[18] non-Hermitian particle-hole symmetry,[15,19] coherent switch.[20]
In 1998, optical waveguide networks[21–34] were proposed as a new kind of photonic bandgap (PBG) structure. Compared with photonic crystals, it exhibits excellent characteristics such as higher flexibility in structural symmetry,[21,23,24] and great convenience in measuring the phase and amplitude of EM waves.[21,23] Consequently, several interesting optical features and phenomena have been demonstrated in waveguide networks, such as extremely wide PBG,[24,25] comb-like optical transmission spectrum,[27,28] and ultra-strong photonic localization.[32,33]
So far, there has been no report that involves a combination of optical waveguide network and anti-PT symmetry. The PT-symmetric optical waveguide network is composed of materials whose imaginary parts of refractive indices are positive and negative simultaneously. Therefore, the gain and loss effects generated by the imaginary part of the refractive index exist in the network at the same time, and the gain and attenuation photonic modes cannot be distinguished.[33] However, the imaginary parts of the material refractive indexes are all either positive or negative in the anti-PT-symmetric optical waveguide network. It means that the anti-PT-symmetric optical waveguide network can only consist of gain or loss materials. In this paper, the anti-PT-symmetric optical waveguide network is composed of loss materials, whose imaginary parts of refractive indexes are all positive. EM waves propagating in the network will get a loss effect generated by the imaginary part of refractive index. In addition, the anti-PT-symmetric optical waveguide network is composed of materials with positive and negative real parts of refractive indices simultaneously. Therefore, when the EM wave propagates in the network, it will generate positive group velocity and negative group velocity, to enhance the flexibility and diversity of EM wave phase regulation, which are not available in PT-symmetric optical structure. By the phase regulation of the real part of the refractive index and the loss effect of the imaginary part of the refractive index, the anti-PT-symmetric optical waveguide network is likely to produce a deeper transmission valley than PT-symmetric optical waveguide network.
Therefore, in this paper, we design a one-dimensional anti-PT-symmetric ring optical waveguide network (1D APTSPROWN). We use the three-material network equation, the generalized eigenfunction method and the generalized Floquet–Bloch theorem to investigate the photonic mode distribution and transmission spectrum in the network. Unlike the PT-symmetric waveguide network reported previously,[33,34] exist in the 1D APTSPROWN are weak and strong extremum spontaneous anti-PT-symmetric breaking points (WBPs and SBPs) simultaneously. The 1D APTSPROWN can create not only ultra-strong transmission near SBPs, but also ultra-weak transmission near WBPs and SBPs, with the maximal and minimal transmissions being 4.08× 1012 and 7.08× 10−52, respectively. The maximal transmission has the same order of magnitude as the best results reported previously and the minimum transmission is about 40 orders of magnitude smaller than the PT-symmetric optical waveguide network with similar structures.[33] This is attributed to 1D APTSPROWN composed materials whose the real parts of refractive indices are positive and negative at the same time, so two kinds of phase effects co-exist. As a result, its photonic modes can not only interact with each other to generate coupling resonance and antiresonance, but also generate resonance and anti-resonance in the same kind of photonic mode. This indicates that the anti-PT-symmetric and PT-symmetric optical constructions are quite different. Our work may pave a new way for designing single photon emitter, optical amplifiers, high-efficiency optical energy saver devices, and other devices.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows. In Section
As shown in Fig.
Since an anti-PT-symmetric optical structure can be realized by constructing a class of synthetic optical material whose refractive index satisfies n(x) = – n* ( – x),[15] n1, n2, and n3 are designed to satisfy the following relationship:
In 1D waveguide networks, linear combinations of two plane waves propagating in opposite directions can express the function of EM waves between nodes i and j below.
The 1D APTSPROWN consists of three kinds of materials. For this kind of structure, by energy flux conservation, our group derived the three-material network equation in 2018 as follows:[33]
For the structure like 1D APTSPROWN, we can use the dimensionless generalized Floquet–Bloch theorem,[23] whose expression is as follows:
The transmission of EM waves can be calculated by the generalized eigenfunction method,[35] which converts wave transmission equations into transmission matrix, and considers the transmission coefficient and reflection coefficient as generalized wave functions.
The dispersion relations of 1D APTSPROWN can be obtained by the generalized Floquet–Bloch theorem and three-material network equation, whose expression is as follows:
In periodic optical waveguide networks, the Bloch wave vector K can reflect the change of the amplitude and phase of the EM wave. According to Eq. (
Unlike the optical waveguide network composed of materials whose refractive index is real, 1D APTSROWN is composed of complex refractive index materials. Thus, its Bloch wave vector K is always a pair of complex solutions with mutual conjugation, corresponding to APMs and GPMs in mathematics. In addition, the 1D APTSPROWN is composed of materials whose refractive indices' real parts are positive and negative simultaneously. Thus, in physics, in this kind of network there exist the attenuation and gain mechanisms at the same time. Consequently, the EM waves irrespective of the values of their frequencies propagate as APMs and GPMs at any position of the network, simultaneously. This demonstrates that we cannot simply determine the location of the anti-PT-symmetric breaking points simply through OPMs, APMs, and GPMs in the network.
Recently, our research group made an in-depth discussion on the properties of PT-symmetric optical waveguide network and defined the imaginary part of refractive index as the spontaneous PT-symmetric breaking point when.[33] Like the above case, K of the anti-PT-symmetric optical waveguide network possesses a pair of conjugate complex solutions. Therefore, we extend the previous research method of PT-symmetric optical waveguide network to the case of anti-PT-symmetric waveguide network.
When |f(v)| < 1, the imaginary part of K may be small and incapable of creating extraordinary transmission. In contrast, for |f(v)| > 1, the imaginary part of K can be large enough to create the extraordinary transmission. Consequently, when |f(v)| < 1, we define the GPM and APM generated by K as weak propagation modes (WPMs), and when |f(v)| > 1, we define the GPM and SPM generated by K as strong propagation modes (SPMs). The imaginary part of material refractive index nb is regarded as the spontaneous anti-PT-symmetric breaking point on the boundary of WPMs and SPMs.
As shown in Fig.
The ultra-strong and ultra-weak transmission can be obtained in 1D APTSPROWN near EBPs. Now, we take na = 1.700 for example to investigate the optical properties of 1D APTSPROWN. (i) In Subsection
The 1D APTSPROWN can produce extraordinary ultra-strong and ultra-weak transmissions due to special phase effect and photonic mode. (i) When the EM wave propagates in the material whose real part of refractive index is positive, the phase of the wave function increases with propagation distance increasing. However, in the material whose real part of refractive index is negative, the phase of the wave function decreases with propagation distance increasing. Thus, the EM waves have two kind of phase effects propagating in 1D APTSPROWN composed of materials whose real parts of refractive indices are positive and negative at the same time. The material with a negative real part of refractive index is called the left-handed material. Unlike the material with a positive real part of refractive index, the transmitted wave and the incident wave are on the same side of the normal line as the EM wave propagating in this material. This means that there is not only one propagation direction of EM waves in the anti-PT symmetric optical waveguide network. However, the PT symmetric optical structure is composed of materials only with a positive real part of refractive index, so the above properties do not exist in the PT symmetric optical structure. The EBPs appear on the boundary of WPMs and the SPMs, where f(v) is continuous without derivative and |f(v)| = 1. Because of two kinds of phase effects of 1D APTSPROWN, WPMs and SPMs can generate resonance and antiresonance, respectively. When the phases of EM waves of the same kind of propagation modes (WPMs or SPMs) differ by (2n + 1)π (n is an integer.) and meet each other, EM waves will generate anti-resonance, forming a transmission valley. If they differ by 2nπ and meet each other, EM waves will resonate to form a transmission peak. This is the first kind of gain and attenuation mechanism generated by 1D APTSPROWN. (ii) When the EM waves propagate in the material with positive imaginary part of refractive index and the imaginary part of wave vector is k (k > 0), the amplitude of the wave function changes by a factor of ekx. The attenuation effect of EM wave increases with the value of nb increasing. In the 1D APTSPROWN, the imaginary parts of the refractive index of the first and third subwaveguide are both positive. However, as shown in Fig.
The value of the real part of refractive index na can significantly affect the degree of phase variation of EM wave in the 1D APTSPROWN, which can change the positions of the EBP. The values of nb selected in Table
The properties of ultra-weak transmissions produced by the network are similar for WBPs and SBPs, with only a numerical difference. In order to avoid duplication of work, we only discuss the latter. As shown in Table
The value of the imaginary part of nb not only is related to the loss effect of 1D APTSPROWN, but also can make the network deviate from EBPs. For the network of anti-PT symmetric waveguide, the resonance and antiresonance effect caused by the real part of the refractive index are the most intense at EBPs. As shown in Fig.
In this paper, we first introduce the concept of anti-parity–time symmetry into the optical system by constructing 1D APTSPROWN. Using the three-material waveguide network equation, the generalized Bloch theorem, and the generalized eigenfunction method, we investigate two kinds of photonic mode distributions (WPMs and SPMs) and transmission spectrums. At SBPs, 1D APTSPROWN can produce ultra-strong and ultra-weak transmission, where the maximal transmission is 4.08× 1012. The maximal transmission is of the same order of magnitude as the best results reported previously. Compared with SBPs, the network can only generate ultra-weak transmission near WBPs, where the minimal transmission is 7.08× 10−52 which is nearly more than 36 orders of magnitude better than the result of SBPs. It is because WPMs and SPMs generate coupling resonance and antiresonance at EBPs. Additionally, the 1D APTSPROWN composed of materials whose refractive indices are positive and negative has two kinds of phase effects, resulting in resonance and antiresonance effect of WPM and SPM respectively. This complex coupling effect causes the network to produce ultra-strong and ultra-weak transmission. Our work may pave a new way for designing single photon emitter, optical amplifiers, high-efficiency optical energy saver devices, and other devices.
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