One-way light transport controlled by synthetic magnetic fluxes and -symmetric resonators

Abstract

Controlled directional light propagation using optical nonlinearity has previously been proposed. Here, we propose a one-way optical device with linear elements controlled by synthetic magnetic fluxes. The device consists of two parity–time symmetric side-coupled resonators with balanced gain and loss. The gain and loss break the reflection symmetry and the magnetic fluxes break the transmission symmetry. Through tuning the magnetic fluxes, reflectionless full transmission in one direction and transmissionless full reflection in the opposite direction can be achieved. The device acts as a light-checking valve, preventing wave propagation in one direction. The proposed one-way transporter uses the nonreciprocity induced by non-Hermiticity and magnetic fluxes without applying nonlinearity. We anticipate that our findings will be useful for optical control and manipulation.