Strong Nonreciprocity in Modulated Resonator Chains through Synthetic Electric and Magnetic Fields

Christopher W. Peterson, Wladimir A. Benalcazar, Mao Lin, Taylor L. Hughes, and Gaurav Bahl

Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 063901 – Published 7 August 2019

Abstract

We study nonreciprocity in spatiotemporally modulated 1D resonator chains from the perspective of equivalent 2D resonator arrays with a synthetic dimension and transverse synthetic electric and magnetic fields. The synthetic fields are respectively related to temporal and spatial modulation of the resonator chain, and we show that their combination can induce strong transmission nonreciprocity, i.e., complete isolation with only a weak perturbative modulation. This nonreciprocal effect is analogous to the Hall effect for charged particles. We experimentally implement chains of two and three spatiotemporally modulated resonators and measure over 58 dB of isolation contrast.

Received 4 March 2019

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.063901

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Metamaterials Synthetic gauge fields

Optical microcavities

Atomic, Molecular & Optical

Authors & Affiliations

Christopher W. Peterson ¹, Wladimir A. Benalcazar^2,3, Mao Lin², Taylor L. Hughes², and Gaurav Bahl⁴

¹Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana 61801, Illinois, USA
²Department of Physics and Institute for Condensed Matter Theory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana 61801, Illinois, USA
³Department of Physics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park 16801, Pennsylvania, USA
⁴Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana 61801, Illinois, USA