Multi-peak solitons in PT-symmetric Bessel optical lattices with defects

This paper presents a theoretical analysis of the existence and stability of multi-peak solitons in parity–time-symmetric Bessel optical lattices with defects in nonlinear media. The results demonstrate that there always exists a critical propagation constant μc for the existence of multi-peak solitons regardless of whether the nonlinearity is self-focusing or self-defocusing. In self-focusing media, multi-peak solitons exist when the propagation constant μ > μc. In the self-defocusing case, solitons exist only when μ < μc. Only low-power solitons can propagate stably when random noise perturbations are present. Positive defects help stabilize the propagation of multi-peak solitons when the nonlinearity is self-focusing. When the nonlinearity is self-defocusing, however, multi-peak solitons in negative defects have wider stable regions than those in positive defects.