Resonant mode conversion in the waveguides with an unbroken and broken PT-symmetry

Abstract: We study resonant mode conversion in the PT-symmetric multimode waveguides, where symmetry breaking manifests itself in sequential destabilization (appearance of the complex eigenvalues) of the pairs of adjacent guided modes. We show that the efficient mode conversion is possible even in the presence of the resonant longitudinal modulation of the complex refractive index. The distinguishing feature of the resonant mode conversion in the PT-symmetric structure is a drastic growth of the width of the resonance curve when the gain/losses coefficient approaches a critical value, at which symmetry breaking occurs. We found that in the system with broken symmetry the resonant coupling between exponentially growing mode with stable higher-order one effectively stabilizes dynamically coupled pair of modes and remarkably diminishes the average rate of the total power growth.