Multipeaked gap solitons in PT-symmetric optical lattices

We report the existence and stability properties of multipeaked solitons in a defocusing Kerr medium with an imprinted complex optical lattice featuring a parity-time (PT) symmetry. Various families of soliton solutions with a different number of peaks are found in the first finite gap of the lattice. Linear stability analysis corroborated by direct propagation simulations reveals that multipeaked gap solitons can propagate stably in a wide range, provided that their propagation constant exceeds a critical value. Our findings demonstrate, for the first time, the existence of stable multipeaked gap solitons in a PT-symmetric lattice. (C) 2012 Optical Society of America