Wave beams, packets and pulses in inhomogeneous non-Hermitian media with dispersive gain or damping

Abstract

Wave beams, packets or pulses are known to be subject to a drift if the properties of the medium change across their extension. This effect is often analyzed considering the dispersive properties of the oscillation, related to the real part of the dispersion relation. The evolution of Gaussian beams/packets/pulses in nonuniform media in the presence of gain or damping is investigated in detail, with particular emphasis on the role of dispersion on both the real and the imaginary part of the dispersion relation. In the paraxial limit, the influence of a non-Hermitian medium on the evolution of the wave can be treated employing the equations derived by E.~M. Graefe and R.~Schubert in the frame of non-Hermitian quantum mechanics [Phys.~Rev.~A 83, 060101(R)]. Analytic solutions of the corresponding paraxial equations are obtained here for a one-dimensional complex dispersion relation characterized by a linear or quadratic dependence on the transverse coordinate (a space coordinate for beams and packets, the time in the co-moving frame for a pulse). In the presence of a constant gradient in both the real and the imaginary part of the dispersion relation, the contribution of the latter can lead to a faster or slower propagation with respect to the Hermitian case, depending on the parameters. In focusing media, a constant gain can counteract dispersive or inhomogeneous damping producing packets of asymptotically constant shape. The analytic formulas derived in this paper offer a way to predict or control the properties of beams/packets/pulses depending on their initial conditions and on the characteristics of the medium.