Microresonator isolators and circulators based on the intrinsic nonreciprocity of the Kerr effect

Leonardo Del Bino; Jonathan M. Silver; Michael T.M. Woodley; Sarah L. Stebbings; Xin Zhao; Pascal Del’Haye

doi:10.1364/OPTICA.5.000279

Microresonator isolators and circulators based on the intrinsic nonreciprocity of the Kerr effect

Leonardo Del Bino, Jonathan M. Silver, Michael T.M. Woodley, Sarah L. Stebbings, Xin Zhao, Pascal Del’Haye

Department of Physics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

206 Citations (SciVal)

Abstract

Nonreciprocal light propagation is important in many applications, ranging from optical telecommunications to integrated photonics. A simple way to achieve optical nonreciprocity is to use the nonlinear interaction between counterpropagating light in a Kerr medium. Within a ring resonator, this leads to spontaneous symmetry breaking, resulting in light of a given frequency circulating in one direction, but not in both directions simultaneously. In this work, we demonstrate that this effect can be used to realize optical isolators and circulators based on a single ultra-high-Q microresonator. We obtain isolation of >24 dB and develop a theoretical model for the power scaling of the attainable nonreciprocity.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	279-282
Number of pages	4
Journal	Optica
Volume	5
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1364/OPTICA.5.000279
Publication status	Published - 20 Mar 2018

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Optical Society of America.

Acknowledgements

X. Z. acknowledges support from the
Chinese Scholarship Council and Natural Science Foundation
of China. J. M. S. acknowledges funding via a Royal Society
of Engineering fellowship. L. D. B. and M. T. M. W. acknowledge funding from EPSRC through the Centre for Doctoral
Training in Applied Photonics.

Funding

H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) (748519, CoLiDR); National Physical Laboratory Strategic Research; National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (61435002, 61675015); H2020 European Research Council (ERC) (756966); Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

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10.1364/OPTICA.5.000279Licence: Other

Cite this

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AU - Zhao, Xin

AU - Del’Haye, Pascal

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Microresonator isolators and circulators based on the intrinsic nonreciprocity of the Kerr effect

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Acknowledgements

Funding

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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