Abstract
Light propagation in distributed-feedback optical structures with gain or loss regions is shown to provide an accessible laboratory tool to visualize in optics the spectral properties of the one-dimensional Dirac equation with non-Hermitian interactions. Spectral singularities and symmetry breaking of the Dirac Hamiltonian are shown to correspond to simple observable physical quantities and are related to well-known physical phenomena such as resonance narrowing and laser oscillation.
- Received 9 February 2010
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.013903
©2010 American Physical Society