Transmission and reflection in a perfectly amplifying and absorbing medium

Abstract

We study transmission and reflection properties of a perfectly amplifying as well as absorbing medium analytically by using the tight binding equation. Different expressions for transmittance and reflectance are obtained for even and odd values of the sample length which is the origin of their oscillatory behavior. In a weak amplifying medium, a cross-over length scale exists below which transmittance and reflectance increase exponentially and above which transmittance decays exponentially while the reflectance gets saturated. Depending on amplification transmittance and reflectance show singular behavior at the cross-over length. In a weak absorbing medium we do not find any cross-over length scale. The transmission coefficient behaves similar to that in an amplifying medium in the asymptotic limit. In a strong amplifying/absorbing medium, the transmission coefficient decays exponentially in the large length limit. In both weak as well as strong absorbing media the logarithm of the reflection coefficient shows the same behavior as obtained in an amplifying medium but with opposite sign.