Phonon-induced anomalous gauge potential for photonic isolation in frequency space

Jianfan Yang; Luqi Yuan; Tian Qin; Fangxing Zhang; Yao Chen; Xiaoshun Jiang; Xianfeng Chen; Shanhui Fan; Wenjie Wan

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arXiv · 2008.03010

Phonon-induced anomalous gauge potential for photonic isolation in frequency space

Jianfan Yang·Luqi Yuan·Tian Qin·Fangxing Zhang·Yao Chen·Xiaoshun Jiang·Xianfeng Chen·Shanhui Fan·Wenjie Wan

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Abstract

Photonic gauge potentials are crucial for manipulating charge-neutral photons like their counterpart electrons in the electromagnetic field, allowing analogous Aharonov-Bohm effect in photonics and paving the way for critical applications like photonic isolation. Normally, a gauge potential exhibits phase inversion along two opposite propagation paths. Here we experimentally demonstrate phonon-induced anomalous gauge potentials with non-inverted gauge phases in a spatial-frequency space, where quasi-phase-matched nonlinear Brillouin scatterings enable such unique direction-dependent gauge phases. Based on this scheme, we construct photonic isolators in the frequency domain permitting nonreciprocal propagation of light along the frequency axis, where coherent phase control in the photonic isolator allows switching completely the directionality through an Aharonov-Bohm interferometer. Moreover, similar coherent controlled unidirectional frequency conversions are also illustrated. These results may offer a unique platform for a compact, integrated solution to implement synthetic-dimension devices for on-chip optical signal processing.

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Jianfan Yang, Luqi Yuan, Tian Qin, Fangxing Zhang, Yao Chen, Xiaoshun Jiang, Xianfeng Chen, Shanhui Fan, Wenjie Wan. 2020-08-07. Phonon-induced anomalous gauge potential for photonic isolation in frequency space. https://arxiv.org/abs/2008.03010

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