Radiation families emitted by a discrete soliton in parity-time-symmetric waveguide arrays

Abstract

We investigate the dynamics of a spatial discrete soliton and the radiation families emitted by it inside a parity-time ($\mathcal{PT}$)-symmetric waveguide array with alternate gain-loss channels. A strong spatial soliton that evolves inside the waveguide array due to the balance between discrete diffraction and Kerr nonlinearity excites linear waves in the form of diffractive radiation when launched with an angle. $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric nature of the waveguide leads to additional radiations in Fourier space that were never explored before. In our work, we mainly focus on the origin of these radiations and try to understand how to control them. Under strong $\mathcal{PT}$ symmetry, a discrete soliton launched normally to the waveguide array produces strong side-lobes which can lead to a population of field at $\pm \pi/2$ in momentum space. In addition, a strong soliton with initial phase gradient radiates unique $\mathcal{PT}$ symmetry assisted linear wave. We establish a phase matching condition to locate such radiation in momentum space. The periodic arrangement of the gain-loss channel also leads to radiations due to reflection and back-scattering, which is prominent for a weak soliton. A linear Hamiltonian analysis for such a waveguide array is provided to identify the $\mathcal{PT}$-phase transition regime and to optimize the parameter for stable discrete soliton dynamics. We thoroughly investigate the origin of all the radiations that emerged in the $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric waveguide array and put forward the background theory which is in good agreement with the full numerical results.