December 1, 2020
We propose a spinning nonlinear resonator as an experimentally accessible platform to achieve nonreciprocal control of optical solitons. Nonreciprocity here results from the relativistic Sagnac-Fizeau optical drag effect, which is different for pump fields propagating in the spinning direction or in the direction opposite to it. We show that in a spinning Kerr resonator, different soliton states appear for the input fields in different directions. These nonreciprocal solitons are more stable against losses induced by inter-modal coupling between clockwise and counterclockwise modes of the resonator. Our work builds a bridge between nonreciprocal physics and soliton science, providing a promising route towards achieving soliton-wave optical isolators and one-way soliton communications.
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August 31, 2020
Dissipative solitons are self-localised structures that can persist indefinitely in "open" systems characterised by continual exchange of energy and/or matter with the environment. They play a key role in photonics, underpinning technologies from mode-locked lasers to microresonator optical frequency combs. Here we report on the first experimental observations of spontaneous symmetry breaking of dissipative optical solitons. Our experiments are performed in a passive, coheren...
March 31, 2023
We study how to achieve, manipulate, and switch classical or quantum nonreciprocal effects of light with a spinning Kerr resonator. In particular, we show that even when there is no classical nonreciprocity (i.e., with the same mean number of photons for both clockwise and counterclockwise propagating modes), it is still possible to realize nonreciprocity of quantum correlations of photons in such a device. Also, by tuning the angular velocity and the optical backscattering s...
July 26, 2018
We propose how to create and manipulate one-way nonclassical light via photon blockade in rotating nonlinear devices. We refer to this effect as nonreciprocal photon blockade (PB). Specifically, we show that in a spinning Kerr resonator, PB happens when the resonator is driven in one direction but not the other. This occurs because of the {Fizeau drag,} leading to a full split of the resonance frequencies of the countercirculating modes. Different types of purely quantum corr...
January 30, 2018
Nonreciprocal light propagation is important in many applications, ranging from optical telecommunications to integrated photonics. A simple way to achieve optical nonreciprocity is to use the nonlinear interaction between counterpropagating light in a Kerr medium. Within a ring resonator, this leads to spontaneous symmetry breaking, with the result that light of a given frequency can circulate in one direction, but not in both directions simultaneously. In this work, we demo...
October 20, 2018
We propose nonreciprocal phonon lasing in a coupled cavity system composed of an optomechanical and a spinning resonator. We show that the optical Sagnac effect leads to significant modifications in both the mechanical gain and the power threshold for phonon lasing. More importantly, the phonon lasing in this system is unidirectional, that is the phonon lasing takes place when the coupled system is driven in one direction but not the other. Our work establishes the potential ...
August 19, 2022
On-chip optical nonreciprocal devices are vital components for integrated photonic systems and scalable quantum information processing. Nonlinear optical isolators and circulators have attracted considerable attention because of their fundamental interest and their important advantages in integrated photonic circuits. However, optical nonreciprocal devices based on Kerr or Kerr-like nonlinearity are subject to dynamical reciprocity when the forward and backward signals coexis...
June 2, 2024
We propose how to achieve chiral photon blockade by spinning a nonlinear optical resonator. We show that by driving such a device at a fixed direction, completely different quantum effects can emerge for the counter-propagating optical modes, due to the spinning-induced breaking of time-reversal symmetry, which otherwise is unattainable for the same device in the static regime. Also, we find that in comparison with the static case, robust non-classical correlations against ra...
January 19, 2021
Temporal cavity solitons are optical pulses that propagate indefinitely in nonlinear resonators. They are currently attracting a lot of attention, both for their many potential applications and for their connection to other fields of science. Cavity solitons are phase locked to a driving laser. This is what distinguishes them from laser dissipative solitons and the main reason why they are excellent candidates for precision applications such as optical atomic clocks. To date,...
July 5, 2016
Light is generally expected to travel through isotropic media independent of its direction. This makes it challenging to develop non-reciprocal optical elements like optical diodes or circulators, which currently rely on magneto-optical effects and birefringent materials. Here we present measurements of non-reciprocal transmission and spontaneous symmetry breaking between counter-propagating light in dielectric microresonators. The symmetry breaking corresponds to a resonance...
December 19, 2023
We propose to achieve a multi-color nonreciprocal optical amplifier, a crucial device in optical communication and information processing, by spinning an active resonator. We show that in such a device, due to the interplay of the Sagnac effect and the optical gain, nonreciprocal signal {amplification} can be realized, accompanied by a giant enhancement of optical group delay from $0.3\;\mathrm{ms}$ to $35\;\mathrm{ms}$ in a chosen direction, which is otherwise unattainable i...