Solitons in PT-symmetric optical lattices with spatially periodic modulation of nonlinearity

We study the existence and stability of solitons forming in PT-symmetric optical lattices with spatially periodic modulation of the local strength of the nonlinear media. We found that the spatial modulation of the nonlinearity significantly affects the stability of solitons in PT-symmetric optical lattices. With the decrease of the strength of nonlinear refractive index modulation, the soliton's stability domain increases, whereas with the increase of the period of nonlinear refractive index modulation, the corresponding soliton's stability range narrows. In addition, we also investigate the influence of variation of the amplitude of the linear PT-symmetric lattice potential on soliton dynamics, in the presence of spatially periodic modulation of nonlinearity. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.