Nonreciprocal Transport Research Articles

Dynamically generated synthetic electric fields for photons

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.

Spin-current diode with a monoaxial chiral magnet

Monoaxial chiral magnets exhibit a chiral conical magnetic state in a magnetic field parallel to the chiral axis. The conical spins carry the potential for nonreciprocal transport phenomena, as they break both spatial inversion and time reversal symmetries. Here, we study the spin-dependent transport in the chiral conical magnetic state, using the Landauer method based on Green's functions for a one-dimensional Kondo lattice model. We show that the system exhibits nonreciprocal spin transport, which depends on the chirality, period, cone angle, and polarization of the spin current. In particular, we find the distinct cone angle dependence between the spin textures with long and short periods. We also show that the nonreciprocity is related to the spin states of itinerant electrons near the leads. Our results indicate that the chiral cone acts as a spin-current diode, which can be flexibly controlled by a magnetic field.

Nonreciprocal charge transport at topological insulator/superconductor interface

Topological superconductor is attracting growing interest for its potential application to topological quantum computation. The superconducting proximity effect on the topological insulator surface state is one promising way to yield topological superconductivity. The superconductivity realized at the interface between Bi2Te3 and non-superconductor FeTe is one such candidate. Here, to detect the mutual interaction between superconductivity and topological surface state, we investigate nonreciprocal transport; i.e., current-direction dependent resistance, which is sensitive to the broken inversion symmetry of the electronic state. The largely enhanced nonreciprocal phenomenon is detected in the Bi2Te3/FeTe heterostructure associated with the superconducting transition. The emergent nonreciprocal signal at low magnetic fields is attributed to the current-induced modulation of supercurrent density under the in-plane magnetic fields due to the spin-momentum locking. The angular dependence of the signal reveals the symmetry of superconductivity and indicates the existence of another mechanism of nonreciprocal transport at high fields.

Electric Toroidal Quadrupoles in the Spin-Orbit-Coupled Metal Cd2Re2O7

We report our theoretical results on the order parameters for the pyrochlore metal Cd_{2}Re_{2}O_{7}, which undergoes enigmatic phase transitions with inversion symmetry breaking. By carefully examining active electronic degrees of freedom based on the lattice symmetry, we propose that two parity-breaking phases at ambient pressure are described by unconventional multipoles, electric toroidal quadrupoles (ETQs) with different components, x^{2}-y^{2} and 3z^{2}-r^{2}, in the pyrochlore tetrahedral unit. We elucidate that the ETQs are activated by bond or spin-current order on Re─Re bonds. Our ETQ scenario provides a key to reconciling the experimental contradictions, by measuring ETQ specific phenomena, such as peculiar spin splittings in the electronic band structure, magnetocurrent effect, and nonreciprocal transport under a magnetic field.

Nonreciprocal thermal and thermoelectric transport of electrons in noncentrosymmetric crystals

Nonreciprocal transport phenomena indicate that the forward and backward flows differ, and are attributed to broken inversion symmetry. In this paper, we study the nonreciprocity of a thermal and thermoelectric transport of electronic systems resulting from inversion-symmetry-broken crystal structures. The nonlinear electric, thermoelectric, and thermal conductivities are derived up to the second order in an electric field and a temperature gradient by using the Boltzmann equation with the relaxation time approximation. All the second-order conductivities appearing in this paper are described by two functions and their derivatives, and these are related to each other in the same way that linear conductivities are e.g. via the Wiedemann-Franz law. We found that non-vanishing thermal-transport coefficients in the zero-temperature limit appear in nonlinear conductivities, which dominate the thermal transport at a sufficiently low temperature. The nonlinear conductivities and possible observable quantities are estimated in a $1H$ monolayer of the transition metal dichalcogenides MoS$_2$ and a polar semiconductor BiTeX(X=I,Br).

Experimental Demonstration of Acoustic Chern Insulators.

We report the experimental realization of an acoustic Chern insulator (ACI), by using an angular-momentum-biased resonator array with the broken Lorentz reciprocity. High Q-factor resonance of the constituent rotors is leveraged to reduce the required rotation speed. ACI is a new topological acoustic system analogous to the electronic quantum Hall insulator, based on an effective magnetic field. Experimental results show that the ACI featured with a stable and uniform metafluid flow bias supports one-way nonreciprocal transport of sound at its edges, which is topologically immune to various types of defects. Our work opens up opportunities for exploring unique observable topological phases and developing topological-insulator-based nonreciprocal devices in acoustics.

Floquet scattering theory based on effective Hamiltonians of driven systems

The design of time-independent effective Hamiltonians that describe periodically modulated systems provides a promising approach to realize new forms of matter. This so-called Floquet engineering approach is currently limited to the description of wave-packet dynamics. Here, we utilize the notion of effective Hamiltonians and develop a Floquet engineering scattering formalism that relies on a systematic high-frequency expansion of the scattering matrix. The method unveils the critical role of micromotion. An application to the case of nonreciprocal transport is presented.

Floquet-Network Theory of Nonreciprocal Transport

We develop a theoretical framework that lays out the fundamental rules under which a periodic (Floquet) driving scheme can induce non-reciprocal transport. Our approach utilizes an extended Hilbert space where a Floquet network with an extra (frequency) dimension naturally arises. The properties of this network (its on-site potential and the intersite couplings) are in one-to-one correspondence with the initial driving scheme. Its proper design allows for a control of the multipath scattering processes and the associated interferences. We harness this degree of freedom to realize driving schemes with narrow or broad-band non-reciprocal transport.

A Reciprocal Formulation of Nonexponential Radiative Transfer. 1: Sketch and Motivation

Previous proposals to permit nonexponential free-path statistics in radiative transfer have not included support for volume and boundary sources that are spatially uncorrelated from the scattering events in the medium. Birth-collision free paths are treated identically to collision–collision free paths and application of this to general, bounded scenes with inclusions leads to nonreciprocal transport. Beginning with reciprocity as a desired property, we propose a new way to integrate nonexponential transport theory into general scenes. We distinguish between the free-path-length statistics between correlated medium particles and the free-path-length statistics beginning at locations not correlated to medium particles, such as boundary surfaces, inclusions, and uncorrelated sources. Reciprocity requires that the uncorrelated free-path distributions are simply the normalized transmittance of the correlated free-path distributions. The combination leads to an equilibrium imbedding of a previously derived generalized transport equation into bounded domains. We compare predictions of this approach to Monte Carlo simulation of multiple scattering from negatively correlated suspensions of monodispersive hard spheres in bounded two-dimensional domains and demonstrate improved performance relative to previous work. We also derive new, exact, reciprocal, single-scattering solutions for plane-parallel half-spaces over a variety of nonexponential media types.

Non-reciprocal energy transport in linear and ring dynamic quantum networks and width-patterned optical waveguide arrays.

Non-reciprocal and uni-directional transport could efficiently transmit signals in integrated quantum and optical networks. It is shown that the time-dependent modulation of the position of quantum nodes would efficiently and non-reciprocally guide an initially injected quantum energy. Moreover, the initial energy could be trapped within a ring configuration of such dynamically controlled quantum nodes. It is also shown that parallel waveguide arrays with specific widths pattern could uni-directly transfer a Gaussian beam across the arrays. By arranging the parallel waveguides on a cylindrical shell with a new widths pattern, the chiral transport of an incident Gaussian beam is also achieved.

Enhanced diode-like operation mediated by an asymmetric non-Hermitian and nonlinear defect

In this work we study the nonreciprocal transport along two tight-binding chains which are connected by a single defect having an asymmetric non-Hermitian nonlinear off-diagonal coupling. The spectrum of transmission and reflection, the gain curve and the rectifying factor are analytically obtained using a backward iterative process. A set of discrete linear Schroedinger equations is used to model the wave propagation through the two Hermitian side chains, while a discrete nonlinear Ablowitz–Ladik equation governs their coupling by the single defect. We show that the emergence of a multistability window induced by the non-linear contribution, together with the biased transport promoted by a parity-breaking non-Hermiticity, generates an efficient rectification of the transmitted wave component.

Single-photon nonreciprocal transport in one-dimensional coupled-resonator waveguides

We study the transport of a single photon in two coupled one-dimensional semi-infinite coupled-resonator waveguides (CRWs), in which both end sides are coupled to a dissipative cavity. We demonstrate that a single photon can transfer from one semi-infinite CRW to the other nonreciprocally. Based on such nonreciprocity, we further construct a three-port single-photon circulator by a T-shaped waveguide, in which three semi-infinite CRWs are pairwise mutually coupled to each other. The single-photon nonreciprocal transport is induced by the breaking of the time-reversal symmetry and the optimal conditions for these phenomena are obtained analytically. The CRWs with broken time-reversal symmetry will open up a kind of quantum devices with versatile applications in quantum networks.

Nonreciprocal charge transport in noncentrosymmetric superconductors.

Lack of spatial inversion symmetry in crystals offers a rich variety of physical phenomena, such as ferroelectricity and nonlinear optical effects (for example, second harmonic generation). One such phenomenon is magnetochiral anisotropy, where the electrical resistance depends on the current direction under the external magnetic field. We demonstrate both experimentally and theoretically that this magnetochiral anisotropy is markedly enhanced by orders of magnitude once the materials enter into a superconducting state. To exemplify this enhancement, we study the magnetotransport properties of the two-dimensional noncentrosymmetric superconducting state induced by gating of MoS2. These results indicate that electrons feel the noncentrosymmetric crystal potential much coherently and sensitively over the correlation length when they form Cooper pairs, and show open a new route to enhance the nonreciprocal response toward novel functionalities, including superconducting diodes.

Generalized non-reciprocity in an optomechanical circuit via synthetic magnetism and reservoir engineering

Synthetic magnetism has been used to control charge neutral excitations for applications ranging from classical beam steering to quantum simulation. In optomechanics, radiation-pressure-induced parametric coupling between optical (photon) and mechanical (phonon) excitations may be used to break time-reversal symmetry, providing the prerequisite for synthetic magnetism. Here we design and fabricate a silicon optomechanical circuit with both optical and mechanical connectivity between two optomechanical cavities. Driving the two cavities with phase-correlated laser light results in a synthetic magnetic flux, which in combination with dissipative coupling to the mechanical bath, leads to nonreciprocal transport of photons with 35dB of isolation. Additionally, optical pumping with blue-detuned light manifests as a particle non-conserving interaction between photons and phonons, resulting in directional optical amplification of 12dB in the isolator through direction. These results indicate the feasibility of utilizing optomechanical circuits to create a more general class of nonreciprocal optical devices, and further, to enable novel topological phases for both light and sound on a microchip.

Demonstration of a chip-based optical isolator with parametric amplification.

Despite being fundamentally challenging in integrated (nano)photonics, achieving chip-based light non-reciprocity becomes increasingly urgent in signal processing and optical communications. Because of material incompatibilities in conventional approaches based on the Faraday effect, alternative solutions have resorted to nonlinear processes to obtain one-way transmission. However, dynamic reciprocity in a recent theoretical analysis has pinned down the functionalities of these nonlinear isolators. To bypass such dynamic reciprocity, we here demonstrate an optical isolator on a silicon chip enforced by phase-matched parametric amplification in four-wave mixing. Using a high-Q microtoroid resonator, we realize highly non-reciprocal transport at the 1,550 nm wavelength when waves are injected from both directions in two different operating configurations. Our design, compatible with current complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) techniques, yields convincing isolation performance with sufficiently low insertion loss for a wide range of input power levels. Moreover, our work demonstrates the possibility of designing chip-based magnetic-free optical isolators for information processing and laser protection.

Brillouin cooling in a linear waveguide

Brillouin scattering is not usually considered as a mechanism that can cause cooling of a material due to the thermodynamic dominance of Stokes scattering in most practical systems. However, it has been shown in experiments on resonators that net phonon annihilation through anti-Stokes Brillouin scattering can be enabled by means of a suitable set of optical and acoustic states. The cooling of traveling phonons in a linear waveguide, on the other hand, could lead to the exciting future prospect of manipulating unidirectional phonon fluxes and even the nonreciprocal transport of quantum information via phonons. In this work, we present an analysis of the conditions under which Brillouin cooling of phonons of both low and high group velocities may be achieved in a linear waveguide. We analyze the three-wave mixing interaction between the optical and traveling acoustic modes that participate in forward Brillouin scattering, and reveal the key regimes of operation for the process. Our calculations indicate that measurable cooling may occur in a system having phonons with spatial loss rate that is of the same order as the spatial optical loss rate. If the Brillouin gain in such a waveguide reaches the order of 105 m−1 W−1, appreciable cooling of phonon modes may be observed with modest pump power of a few mW.

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.

Non-reciprocal geometric wave diode by engineering asymmetric shapes of nonlinear materials.

Unidirectional nonreciprocal transport is at the heart of many fundamental problems and applications in both science and technology. Here we study the novel design of wave diode devices by engineering asymmetric shapes of nonlinear materials to realize the function of non-reciprocal wave propagations. We first show analytical results revealing that both nonlinearity and asymmetry are necessary to induce such non-reciprocal (asymmetric) wave propagations. Detailed numerical simulations are further performed for a more realistic geometric wave diode model with typical asymmetric shape, where good non-reciprocal wave diode effect is demonstrated. Finally, we discuss the scalability of geometric wave diodes. The results open a flexible way for designing wave diodes efficiently simply through shape engineering of nonlinear materials, which may find broad implications in controlling energy, mass and information transports.

Multiple scattering calculations for nonreciprocal planar magnetoplasmonic nanostructures

We present an extended version of the layer-multiple-scattering method, which is ideally suited for the study of photonic crystals of different kinds of particles, encompassing homogeneous and multicoated chiral and nonchiral spheres, gyrotropic spheres, as well as homogeneous nonspherical particles. The efficiency of the method is demonstrated on specific examples of planar magnetoplasmonic nanostructures that lack, simultaneously, time-reversal and space-inversion symmetries. Nonreciprocal transport of light at the (001) surface of a semi-infinite face centered cubic (fcc) crystal of plasma nanospheres under the action of an external, in-plane, static magnetic field and of surface plasmon polaritons at the surface of a plasmonic material coated with an overlayer of magnetized garnet nanospheres is demonstrated in the Voigt geometry.