Abstract
Static synthetic magnetic fields give rise to phenomena including the Lorentz force and the quantum Hall effect even for neutral particles, and they have by now been implemented in a variety of physical systems. Moving towards fully dynamical synthetic gauge fields allows, in addition, for backaction of the particles' motion onto the field. If this results in a time-dependent vector potential, conventional electromagnetism predicts the generation of an electric field. Here, we show how synthetic electric fields for photons arise self-consistently due to the nonlinear dynamics in a driven system. Our analysis is based on optomechanical arrays, where dynamical gauge fields arise naturally from phonon-assisted photon tunneling. We study open, one-dimensional arrays, where synthetic magnetic fields are absent. However, we show that synthetic electric fields can be generated dynamically, which, importantly, suppress photon transport in the array. The generation of these fields depends on the direction of photon propagation, leading to a novel mechanism for a photon diode, inducing nonlinear nonreciprocal transport via dynamical synthetic gauge fields.
Highlights
The field of cavity optomechanics, addressing the interaction between light and sound, has made rapid strides in recent years [1]
To implement dynamical gauge fields for photons, i.e., fields that are themselves dynamical degrees of freedom, the oscillation phase φ has to evolve freely, which is the case if the mechanical mode performs limit-cycle oscillations [41]
We use the equations of Ref. [41] as our starting point, to predict the phenomenon of synthetic electric fields generated by nonlinear dynamics, giving rise to unidirectional photon transport
Summary
The field of cavity optomechanics, addressing the interaction between light and sound, has made rapid strides in recent years [1]. It was understood only recently that optomechanics provides a very natural platform for creating dynamical classical gauge fields [41]: if the mechanical resonator is not periodically modulated by external driving but rather undergoes limit-cycle oscillations, the phase of those oscillations becomes a dynamical gauge field. The scenarios in which these electric fields arise, and their physical consequences, are qualitatively different from the more conventional selfconsistently generated magnetic fields discussed in our previous work [41] They can arise even in a linear arrangement of coupled photon modes, where static vector potentials do not have any effect, since they can be gauged away. The nonlinear dynamics and unidirectional transport explored in our work are absent
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
