Nonreciprocal transmission and optical isolation with effective magnetic fields in multimode optomechanical systems

Abstract

The creation of systems that violate reciprocity requires suitable forms of time-reversal symmetry breaking. For electromagnetic waves, the conventional way to achieve this is through a strong magnetic field that biases a material having a magneto-optic response. A vibrant search for alternative methods that mimic a magnetic field has taken shape in recent years. Of particular interest are systems that create a synthetic magnetic field that interacts with neutral particles, such as photons and phonons, as these could be used for communication platforms resilient to disorder and on-chip optical isolators and circulators.