Propagation properties of cosh-Airy beams in an inhomogeneous medium with Gaussian PT-symmetric potentials

Abstract

Abstract We numerically investigate and statistically analyze the impact of medium parameters (modulation depth P, modulation factor ω, and gain/loss strength W 0) and beam parameters (truncation coefficient a and distribution factor χ 0) on the propagation characteristics of a cosh-Airy beam in the Gaussian parity-time (PT)-symmetric potential. It is demonstrated that the main lobe of a cosh-Airy beam is captured as a soliton, which varies periodically during propagation. The residual beam self-accelerates along a parabolic trajectory due to the self-healing property. With increment in P, the period of a trapped soliton decreases almost monotonically, while the peak power of a trapped soliton increases monotonically. With the increase in ω or decrease in the absolute value of W 0, the period and peak power of a trapped soliton decrease rapidly and then almost remain unchanged. Moreover, it is indicated that the period of a trapped soliton remains basically unchanged no matter a and χ 0 increase or decrease. The peak power of a trapped soliton increases with increment of a, but the peak power of a trapped soliton stays relatively constant irrespective of variation in χ 0.