Parity-time symmetry phase transition in photonic time-modulated media

Fuente: arXiv
Enregistré dans:
Détails bibliographiques
Auteurs principaux: Zhang, Rui-Chuan, Yang, Shu, Sha, Yixin, Xie, Zetao, Yang, Yi
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
Sujets:
Accès en ligne:
Tags: Ajouter un tag
Pas de tags, Soyez le premier à ajouter un tag!
_version_ 1866908434042978304
author Zhang, Rui-Chuan
Yang, Shu
Sha, Yixin
Xie, Zetao
Yang, Yi
author_facet Zhang, Rui-Chuan
Yang, Shu
Sha, Yixin
Xie, Zetao
Yang, Yi
contents Time modulation can cause gain and loss in photonic media, leading to complex modal behaviors and enhanced wave controllability in the non-Hermitian regime. Conversely, we reveal that Hermiticity and parity-time $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetry phase transition are possible under the temporal $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetry in time-modulated photonic media. We prove that, for a homogeneously modulated photonic medium with complex-valued modulation, temporal $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetry is a necessary but insufficient condition for obtaining a real eigenvalue spectrum, giving rise to $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetry phase transition. Specifically, the $\mathcal{PT}$ phase transition critically depends on the contrast between the modulation depth of the real and imaginary parts of permittivity when they are sinusoidally modulated with a $π/2$ phase difference. We generalize the discretized temporal-interface transfer matrix method to a continuous differential operator framework, which facilitates the confirmation of the phase transition condition via Magnus expansion analysis. Full-wave simulations and analytical calculations jointly confirm the occurrence of $\mathcal{PT}$-transition by examining the scattering behavior of a propagating pulse in such a type of modulated medium. The findings provide a temporal $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric paradigm for controlling Hermiticity and non-Hermiticity in spatiotemporal photonic systems.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_03337
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Parity-time symmetry phase transition in photonic time-modulated media
Zhang, Rui-Chuan
Yang, Shu
Sha, Yixin
Xie, Zetao
Yang, Yi
Optics
Time modulation can cause gain and loss in photonic media, leading to complex modal behaviors and enhanced wave controllability in the non-Hermitian regime. Conversely, we reveal that Hermiticity and parity-time $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetry phase transition are possible under the temporal $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetry in time-modulated photonic media. We prove that, for a homogeneously modulated photonic medium with complex-valued modulation, temporal $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetry is a necessary but insufficient condition for obtaining a real eigenvalue spectrum, giving rise to $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetry phase transition. Specifically, the $\mathcal{PT}$ phase transition critically depends on the contrast between the modulation depth of the real and imaginary parts of permittivity when they are sinusoidally modulated with a $π/2$ phase difference. We generalize the discretized temporal-interface transfer matrix method to a continuous differential operator framework, which facilitates the confirmation of the phase transition condition via Magnus expansion analysis. Full-wave simulations and analytical calculations jointly confirm the occurrence of $\mathcal{PT}$-transition by examining the scattering behavior of a propagating pulse in such a type of modulated medium. The findings provide a temporal $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric paradigm for controlling Hermiticity and non-Hermiticity in spatiotemporal photonic systems.
title Parity-time symmetry phase transition in photonic time-modulated media
topic Optics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.03337