Giant and tunable Goos-Hänchen shift with a high reflectance induced by PT-symmetry in atomic vapor.

Abstract

The Goos-Hänchen (GH) shifts of light beams reflected from conventional passive optical systems could be enhanced using the Brewster angle effect or resonance effect, but the maximum GH shift is located at the reflectance minima, which is difficult for experimental detection. In this paper, we present an efficient and flexible scheme to realize complex parity-time (PT)-symmetric periodic optical potentials (complex crystals) in helium atomic vapor. The GH shifts of probe light reflected from the complex crystal are theoretically investigated and large GH shifts could be obtained inside the high-reflection band. When the complex crystal is operated near the coherent perfect absorption-laser point, the maximum GH shift of probe light is exactly located at the reflectance peak. Moreover, the GH shifts could be easily controlled by adjusting the intensity of control light.