Giant Nonreciprocity Research Articles

Strong and wide-angle nonreciprocal radiation in modified distributed Bragg reflector-Weyl semimetal heterostructure

An approach to obtain easy-to-fabricate and spectrally selective nonreciprocal thermal emitter (NTE) has been proposed. The presented hybrid structure is composed of Weyl semimetal (WSM) film sandwiched by Ge/BaF2/Ge tri-layer and metal substrate. It has been shown that structural parameters hold tolerance on the order of hundreds of nanometers, which are highly favorable for fabricating with low cost and high performance. Multiband responses of the device can be realized through controlling the thickness of last Ge layer, which boosts the flexibility of preparation and potential applications. The giant nonreciprocity can be maintained with broad polar and azimuthal angle ranges. By manipulating the structural parameters, a remarkable result of nonreciprocal radiation is realized under both the transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) wave incidence. By changing the azimuthal angle (ϕi) of incidence, the nonreciprocity (η) can be effectively manipulated. The simulated η spectra is symmetric along the azimuthal angle ϕi=90°, and η=0 when ϕi=90°. Our results provide a much simpler way to achieve the multi-channel nonreciprocity and could lead to the advancement of power scavenging and conversion devices.

Giant nonreciprocity of surface acoustic waves induced by an anti-magnetostrictive bilayer

Lack of nonreciprocity is one of the major drawbacks of solid-state acoustic devices, which has hindered the development of microwave-frequency acoustic isolators and circulators. Here, we report a giant nonreciprocal transmission of shear-horizontal surface acoustic waves (SH-SAWs) on a LiTaO3 substrate coated with a negative–positive magnetostrictive bilayer structure of Ni/Ti/FeCoSiB. Although the static magnetic moments of two layers are parallel, SH-SAWs can excite optical-mode spin waves much stronger than acoustic-mode ones at relatively low frequencies via magnetoelastic coupling. The measured magnitude nonreciprocity exceeds 40 dB (or 80 dB/mm) at 2.333 GHz. In addition, maximum nonreciprocal phase accumulation reaches 188° (376°/mm), which is desired for an effective SAW circulator. Our theoretical model and calculations provide an insight into the observed phenomena and demonstrate a pathway for further improvement of nonreciprocal acoustic devices.

Giant Spin-Orbit Induced Magnon Nonreciprocity in Ultrathin Ferromagnets.

The propagation characteristics of fermionic and bosonic quasiparticles determine the fundamental transport properties of solids and are of great technological relevance for designing logic devices. In particular, nonreciprocity, which describes that a quasiparticle flows preferably along a certain direction of a symmetry path, is an essential requirement to realize logic architectures, e.g., switches, diodes, transistors, etc. Here we introduce a mechanism, which leads to giant nonreciprocity of ultrafast terahertz magnons in ferromagnetic films with a large spin-orbit coupling. The mechanism is based on the competition between the exchange and spin-orbit scattering. We anticipate that the effect can be used to excite nonreciprocal or even unidirectional magnons in a large class of ultrathin films and nanostructures grown on substrates with a large spin-orbit coupling.

Coherent Magnons with Giant Nonreciprocity at Nanoscale Wavelengths.

Nonreciprocal wave propagation arises in systems with broken time-reversal symmetry and is key to the functionality of devices, such as isolators or circulators, in microwave, photonic, and acoustic applications. In magnetic systems, collective wave excitations known as magnon quasiparticles have so far yielded moderate nonreciprocities, mainly observed by means of incoherent thermal magnon spectra, while their occurrence as coherent spin waves (magnon ensembles with identical phase) is yet to be demonstrated. Here, we report the direct observation of strongly nonreciprocal propagating coherent spin waves in a patterned element of a ferromagnetic bilayer stack with antiparallel magnetic orientations. We use time-resolved scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (TR-STXM) to directly image the layer-collective dynamics of spin waves with wavelengths ranging from 5 μm down to 100 nm emergent at frequencies between 500 MHz and 5 GHz. The experimentally observed nonreciprocity factor of these counter-propagating waves is greater than 10 with respect to both group velocities and specific wavelengths. Our experimental findings are supported by the results from an analytic theory, and their peculiarities are further discussed in terms of caustic spin-wave focusing.

Nonreciprocity of Phase Accumulation and Propagation Losses of Surface Acoustic Waves in Hybrid Magnetoelastic Heterostructures

Lack of nonreciprocity---in particular, nonreciprocity of phase accumulation---is one of the major drawbacks of microwave solid-state acoustic devices, which has prevented the development of acoustic isolators and circulators. Here we report the observation of the phase nonreciprocity of hybridized surface acoustic waves (SAWs) and spin waves in a magnetoelastic heterostructure. Our system consists of a $\text{Fe-Ga-B}/{\mathrm{Al}}_{2}{\mathrm{O}}_{3}/\text{Fe-Ga-B}$ multilayer on top of a ${\mathrm{LiNbO}}_{3}$ crystal. Maximum values of the observed nonreciprocal phase accumulation easily exceed \ensuremath{\pi} radians over a broad range of field conditions, which is necessary for the development of an effective circulator. In addition, under the application of bias magnetic field, the structure demonstrates tunable giant nonreciprocity of propagation losses with isolation as high as 48 dB, necessary for the development of isolators. Theoretical calculations provide an insight into the observed phenomena and demonstrate a pathway for further improvement of nonreciprocal SAW devices based on magnetoelastic coupling.

Giant nonreciprocity of surface acoustic waves enabled by the magnetoelastic interaction.

Nonreciprocity, the defining characteristic of isolators, circulators, and a wealth of other applications in radio/microwave communications technologies, is generally difficult to achieve as most physical systems incorporate symmetries that prevent the effect. In particular, acoustic waves are an important medium for information transport, but they are inherently symmetric in time. In this work, we report giant nonreciprocity in the transmission of surface acoustic waves (SAWs) on lithium niobate substrate coated with ferromagnet/insulator/ferromagnet (FeGaB/Al2O3/FeGaB) multilayer structure. We exploit this structure with a unique asymmetric band diagram and expand on magnetoelastic coupling theory to show how the magnetic bands couple with acoustic waves only in a single direction. We measure 48.4-dB (power ratio of 1:69,200) isolation that outperforms current state-of-the-art microwave isolator devices in a previously unidentified acoustic wave system that facilitates unprecedented size, weight, and power reduction. In addition, these results offer a promising platform to study nonreciprocal SAW devices.

Broadband and giant nonreciprocity at the subwavelength scale in magnetoplasmonic materials

We unveil a previously overlooked wave propagation regime in magnetized plasmonic (gyrotropic) materials with comparable plasma and cyclotron frequencies, which enables a giant and broadband (nondispersive) nonreciprocal response. We show that this effect is due to a natural form of dispersion compensation that ultimately originates from the subtle implications of the principle of causality for gyrotropic plasmonic media, which allows the existence of a low-loss frequency window with anomalous nonmonotonic dispersion for the extraordinary mode. This is in stark contrast with conventional nongyrotropic passive materials, for which the frequency derivative of the permittivity dispersion function is always positive in low-loss regions. These findings pave the way for superior nonreciprocal components in terms of bandwidth of operation and compactness, with orders-of-magnitude reductions in size. As a relevant example, we consider indium antimonide (InSb) to theoretically demonstrate a deeply subwavelength, broadband, THz isolator operating under moderate magnetic bias and at room temperature.

Broadband Nonreciprocity Realized by Locally Controlling the Magnon’s Radiation

Interference between coherent and dissipative coupling results in nonreciprocity in cavity magnonic devices, in which the isolation ratio can theoretically be infinite when the magnon-mode frequency exactly matches a zero-damping condition (ZDC). In order to obtain a nonreciprocal device possessing both a high isolation ratio and a broad operating bandwidth, we tune the side ZDCs by integrating a movable loop antenna, which can effectively control the radiation damping of the magnon mode. As a consequence, the effective operating bandwidth of the giant nonreciprocity can be broadened to a few hundred times the magnon linewidth. Our study offers a feasible method to design a broadband nonreciprocal device with a high isolation ratio by engineering photon-magnon coupling, which may be of benefit for future quantum and coherent information processing.

Switchable giant nonreciprocal frequency shift of propagating spin waves in synthetic antiferromagnets

The nonreciprocity of propagating spin waves, i.e., the difference in amplitude and/or frequency depending on the propagation direction, is essential for the realization of spin wave-based logic circuits. However, the nonreciprocal frequency shifts demonstrated so far are not large enough for applications because they originate from interfacial effects. In addition, switching of the spin wave nonreciprocity in the electrical way remains a challenging issue. Here, we show a switchable giant nonreciprocal frequency shift of propagating spin waves in interlayer exchange-coupled synthetic antiferromagnets. The observed frequency shift is attributed to large asymmetric spin wave dispersion caused by a mutual dipolar interaction between two magnetic layers. Furthermore, we find that the sign of the frequency shift depends on relative configuration of two magnetizations, based on which we demonstrate an electrical switching of the nonreciprocity. Our findings provide a route for switchable and highly nonreciprocal spin wave-based applications.

Broadband Nonreciprocal Amplification in Luminal Metamaterials.

Time has emerged as a new degree of freedom for metamaterials, promising new pathways in wave control. However, electromagnetism suffers from limitations in the modulation speed of material parameters. Here we argue that these limitations can be circumvented by introducing a traveling-wave modulation, with the same phase velocity of the waves. We show how luminal metamaterials generalize the parametric oscillator concept, realize giant broadband nonreciprocity, achieve efficient one-way amplification, pulse compression, and harmonic generation, and propose a realistic implementation in double-layer graphene.

Berry phase jumps and giant nonreciprocity in Dirac quantum dots

We predict that a strong nonreciprocity in the resonance spectra of Dirac quantum dots can be induced by the Berry phase. The nonreciprocity arises in relatively weak magnetic fields and is manifest in anomalously large field-induced splittings of quantum dot resonances which are degenerate at $B=0$ due to time-reversal symmetry. This exotic behavior, which is governed by field-induced jumps in the Berry phase of confined electronic states, is unique to quantum dots in Dirac materials and is absent in conventional quantum dots. The effect is strong for gapless Dirac particles and can overwhelm the $B$-induced orbital and Zeeman splittings. A finite Dirac mass suppresses the effect. The nonreciprocity, predicted for generic two-dimensional Dirac materials, is accessible through Faraday and Kerr optical rotation measurements and scanning tunneling spectroscopy.

Giant nonreciprocity near exceptional-point degeneracies

We show that gyrotropic structures with balanced gain and loss that respect anti-linear symmetries exhibit a giant non-reciprocity at the so-called exact phase where the eigenfrequencies of the isolated non-Hermitian set-up are real. The effect occurs in a parameter domain near an exceptional point (EP) degeneracy, where mode-orthogonality collapses. The theoretical predictions are confirmed numerically in the microwave domain, where a non-reciprocal transport above 90dB is demonstrated, and are further verified using lump-circuitry modeling. The analysis allows us to speculate the universal nature of the phenomenon for any wave system where EP and gyrotropy can co-exist.

Nonreciprocal amplitude-frequency resonant response of metasandwiches “ferrite plate-grating of resonant elements”

New microwave nonreciprocal properties are investigated in “ferrite plate – grating of resonant elements” metasandwiches arranged along the axis of a rectangular waveguide in a transverse constant magnetic field. Giant nonreciprocity in the transmission is observed at the ferromagnetic resonance frequencies at certain values of the magnetic field under conditions of a mutual influence between the ferromagnetic and the grating resonances. In addition, nonreciprocal splitting of the resonance in grating elements is observed under small magnetic field, which is much less than the field necessary to the ferromagnetic resonance excitation. The nonreciprocal transmission does not take place in the case of free ferrite in the absence of a grating. Sign reversal of the nonreciprocity is observed, when ferrite transfers to the opposite side of a grating as well as under certain values of the constant magnetic field, when the sign reversal of difference between frequencies of the ferromagnetic resonance and the grating resonance takes place. Nonreciprocal effects are explained by the interaction between precessing spins in ferrite and a magnetic field of the surface wave, formed by a grating, and by coupling between the resonances of grating elements. It has been shown theoretically that microwaves in waveguide with bianisotropic layer, simulating a grating of resonant elements, are elliptically or circularly polarized with frequency and spatially – dependent rotating sense of the microwave magnetic field. The nonreciprocal effects have been observed for different grating elements: for both electric dipoles and chiral elements.