Non-Hermitian photonic time quasicrystal
Abstract
Photonic time crystals amplify waves through temporal modulation. We study a temporal analogue of the non-Hermitian Aubry-André-Harper model. By continuing an incommensurate temporal modulation into the complex phase plane, we find that the bulk amplification rate as a function of the complexification coordinate is organized into distinct integer phases, with its slope locked to an integer within each phase. This integer is Avila's acceleration, connecting a global structure of quasiperiodic operator theory with a directly observable optical propagation response. The quantized response persists in the presence of defects in the time-dependent permittivity modulation that preserve the underlying analytic phase structure. As a wave-level consequence, two input frequencies belonging to different integer phases acquire exponentially separated amplification, producing spectral selection and reshaping the temporal beat pattern. Our results establish that a global integer of quasiperiodic operator theory can govern a tunable, quantized growth response in a non-Hermitian photonic time quasicrystal.
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BibTeX
@misc{chen2026nonhermitian,
title = {{Non-Hermitian photonic time quasicrystal}},
author = {Shuhang Chen and Zhi Zheng and Qi Zhu},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.24327},
eprint = {2609.24327},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.24327},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Non-Hermitian photonic time quasicrystal
AU - Shuhang Chen
AU - Zhi Zheng
AU - Qi Zhu
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/21
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.24327
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.24327
AB - Photonic time crystals amplify waves through temporal modulation. We study a temporal analogue of the non-Hermitian Aubry-André-Harper model. By continuing an incommensurate temporal modulation into the complex phase plane, we find that the bulk amplification rate as a function of the complexification coordinate is organized into distinct integer phases, with its slope locked to an integer within each phase. This integer is Avila's acceleration, connecting a global structure of quasiperiodic operator theory with a directly observable optical propagation response. The quantized response persists in the presence of defects in the time-dependent permittivity modulation that preserve the underlying analytic phase structure. As a wave-level consequence, two input frequencies belonging to different integer phases acquire exponentially separated amplification, producing spectral selection and reshaping the temporal beat pattern. Our results establish that a global integer of quasiperiodic operator theory can govern a tunable, quantized growth response in a non-Hermitian photonic time quasicrystal.
ER -