Extraordinary propagation characteristics of electromagnetic waves in one-dimensional anti-PT-symmetric ring optical waveguide network.

In this paper, we design a one-dimensional anti-PT-symmetric ring optical waveguide network (1D APTSPROWN). Using the three-material network equation and the generalized Floquet–Bloch theorem, we investigate its photonic mode distribution, and observe weak extremum spontaneous anti-PT-symmetric breaking points (WBPs) and strong extremum spontaneous anti-PT-symmetric breaking points (SBPs). Then the transmission spectrum is obtained by using the three-material network equation and the generalized eigenfunction method. The 1D APTSPROWN is found to generate ultra-strong transmission near SBPs and ultra-weak transmission near WBPs and SBPs, with the maximal and minimal transmissions being 4.08× 1012 and 7.08× 10−52, respectively. The maximal transmission has the same order of magnitude as the best-reported result. It is not only because the distribution of photonic modes generated by the 1D APTSROWN results in the coupling resonance and anti-resonance, but also because the 1D APTSROWN composed of materials whose real parts of refractive indices are positive and negative has two kinds of phase effects, which results in the resonance and anti-resonance effects in the same kind of photonic modes. This demonstrates that the anti-PT-symmetric and PT-symmetric optical waveguide networks are quite different, which leads to a more in-depth understanding of anti-PT-symmetric and PT-symmetric structures. This work has the potential for paving a new approach to designing single photon emitters, optical amplifiers, and high-efficiency optical energy saver devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]