Asymmetric localization and symmetric diffraction-free transmission in synthetic photonic lattice with anti-parity-time symmetry

• Published in: Optics letters 2020-06, Vol.45 (11), p.3099-3102
• Main Authors: Dai, Yanan, Wen, Zengrun, Ji, Kaiwen, Liu, Zhenjuan, Wang, Haohao, Zhang, Zhiqing, Gao, Yuanmei, Lu, Baole, Wang, Yishan, Qi, Xinyuan, Bai, Jintao
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0146-9592; 1539-4794
• DOI: 10.1364/OL.392436

We study, to the best of our knowledge, the first observations of light propagation in synthetic photonic lattice with anti-parity-time symmetry by tuning the gain or loss of two coupled fiber rings alternatively and corresponding phase distribution periodically. By tuning the phase φ and the wave number Q in the lattice, asymmetric transmission of the light field can be achieved for both long and short loops when φ ≠ n π / 2 ( n is an integer). Further investigations demonstrate that asymmetric localization of the light field in the long loop and symmetric diffraction-free transmission in two loops can both be realized by changing these two parameters. Our work provides a new method to obtain anti-parity-time symmetry in synthetic photonic lattice and paves a broad way to achieve novel optical manipulation in photonic devices.