Nonlinear multi-core waveguiding structures with balanced gain and loss

TL;DR

This paper investigates the existence, stability, and dynamics of linear and nonlinear modes in radially symmetric multi-core waveguides with balanced gain and loss, revealing conditions for stability and proposing a novel stabilization method.

Contribution

It introduces a reduction to an effective PT-symmetric dimer with asymmetric coupling and proposes a periodic modulation technique for stabilization.

Findings

Existence of two modes with real propagation constants before PT-symmetry breaking

Gain localized in the core leads to stable propagation, while gain in the ring causes instability

Periodic modulation of gain and loss can stabilize light propagation

Abstract

We study existence, stability, and dynamics of linear and nonlinear stationary modes propagating in radially symmetric multi-core waveguides with balanced gain and loss. We demonstrate that, in general, the system can be reduced to an effective ${\cal PT}$-symmetric dimer with asymmetric coupling. In the linear case, we find that there exist two modes with real propagation constants before an onset of the ${\cal PT}$-symmetry breaking while other modes have always the propagation constants with nonzero imaginary parts. This leads to a stable (unstable) propagation of the modes when gain is localized in the core (ring) of the waveguiding structure. In the case of nonlinear response, we show that an interplay between nonlinearity, gain, and loss induces a high degree of instability, with only small windows in the parameter space where quasi-stable propagation is observed. We propose a novel stabilization mechanism based on a periodic modulation of both gain and loss along the propagation direction that allows bounded light propagation in the multi-core waveguiding structures.