Complex beam dynamics in PT-symmetric optical lattices

After realizing the counterintuitive fact that PT-symmetric Hamiltonians can exhibit entirely real spectra, intense studies have been devoted to extend the framework of quantum mechanics into the complex domain. Quite recently however, the concept of PT-symmetry was introduced and experimentally observed in the framework of classical Optics. In this paper, we examine the peculiar properties of PT-optical lattices and their potential applications as a new class of synthetic metamaterials. In particular, we investigate the complex linear and nonlinear beam dynamics close to the exceptional point of a PT-lattice, the absence of anomalous diffraction, negative refraction due to non-hermiticity and the effect of Kerr nonlinearity on power oscillations.