Abstract

Exceptional points (EPs) with a global collapse of pairs of eigenfunctions are shown to arise in two locally coupled and spatially extended optical structures with balanced gain and loss. The global collapse at the EP deeply changes light propagation, which becomes very sensitive to small changes of initial conditions or system parameters, similar to what happens in models of classical or quantum catastrophes. The implications of global collapse for light behavior are illustrated by considering discrete beam diffraction and Bloch oscillation catastrophe in coupled waveguide lattices.

© 2018 Optical Society of America

Quantum interference and exceptional points

S. Longhi
Opt. Lett. 43(21) 5371-5374 (2018)

Exceptional points for photon pairs bound by nonlinear dissipation in cavity arrays

Mark Lyubarov and Alexander Poddubny
Opt. Lett. 43(24) 5917-5920 (2018)

Control of exceptional points in photonic crystal slabs

Piotr M. Kamiński, Alireza Taghizadeh, Olav Breinbjerg, Jesper Mørk, and Samel Arslanagić
Opt. Lett. 42(15) 2866-2869 (2017)

Chiral dynamics of exceptional points in weakly absorbing biaxial crystal

C. T. Samlan and Nirmal K. Viswanathan
Opt. Lett. 43(15) 3538-3541 (2018)

Non-diffracting states at exceptional points

Cem Yuce and Hamidreza Ramezani
Opt. Lett. 46(4) 765-768 (2021)