Gray solitons in parity-time symmetric potentials

We numerically study the gray solitons in parity-time (PT) symmetric potentials. Simulated results show that there are two kinds of gray solitons, the dip-shaped gray solitons and the hump-shaped solitons, and both of them can be stable. Hump-shaped solitons can always exist, but the grayness of a stable dip-shaped gray soliton should exceed a threshold value. More interesting, it is discovered that when propagating in PT symmetric potentials, the gray solitons have no transverse deviation, and this is a phenomenon different from the usual gray solitons. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America