Non-adiabatic transitions in a photonic PT-symmetric lattice

Luis Yansi Morales-Molina

Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Physics Department, Santiago, Chile

We study Landau-Zener interband transitions for a photonic PT-symmetric lattice in the presence of an external force. We show that gain and losses of the light beam, as well as the occupation probabilities of the bands involved in the transitions can be accurately managed upon tuning the amplitude of the non-Hermitian component of the lattice. Exact expressions for the transition and non-transition probabilities for a PT-symmetric system obtained within a two-mode approximation are provided. These equations successfully account for the main features of the transitions in the photonic lattice.

We also interpret the non-conventional Bloch oscillations studied by S. Longhi in Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 123601 (2009) as a critical case of a Landau-Zener transition.

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