PHYSICS LETTERS A, vol.376, no.44, pp.2770-2774, 2012 (SCI-Expanded)
We study the Kapitza-Dirac diffraction of a free beam particle in the presence of a PT symmetric standing wave. We discuss that the momentum and total probability are not conserved in the non-Hermitian scattering process. We show that the average momentum gain/loss does not vanish over a period even if the non-Hermitian optical potential changes periodically in time. We give the resonance conditions at which large momentum transfer is produced. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.