  Amplification/attenuation of light waves in artificial materials with a
gain/loss modulation on the wavelength scale can be sensitive to the
propagation direction. We give a numerical proof of the high anisotropy of the
gain/loss in two dimensional periodic structures with square and rhombic
lattice symmetry by solving the full set of Maxwell's equations using the
finite difference time domain method. Anisotropy of amplification/attenuation
leads to the narrowing of the angular spectrum of propagating radiation with
wavevectors close to the edges of the first Brillouin Zone. The effect provides
a novel and useful method to filter out high spatial harmonics from noisy
beams.
