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

Nature Physics volume 13, pages 465–471 (2017)Cite this article

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Abstract

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 non-reciprocal transport of photons with 35 dB 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 12 dB in the isolator through-direction. These results suggest the possibility of using optomechanical circuits to create a more general class of non-reciprocal optical devices, and further, to enable new topological phases for both light and sound on a microchip.

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Figure 1: Synthetic magnetic field in an optomechanical cavity system.
Figure 2: Silicon optomechanical crystal circuit.
Figure 3: Measurement of optical non-reciprocity.
Figure 4: Synthetic magnetic field with a single-mechanical cavity.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank M. Roukes for the use of his atomic force microscope in the nano-oxidation tuning of the cavities. This work was supported by the AFOSR-MURI Quantum Photonic Matter, the ARO-MURI Quantum Opto-Mechanics with Atoms and Nanostructured Diamond (grant N00014-15-1-2761), the University of Chicago Quantum Engineering Program (A.A.C., A.M.), the ERC Starting Grant OPTOMECH (F.M.), the Institute for Quantum Information and Matter, an NSF Physics Frontiers Center (grant PHY-1125565) with support of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and the Kavli Nanoscience Institute at Caltech.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kavli Nanoscience Institute, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA

    Kejie Fang, Jie Luo, Matthew H. Matheny & Oskar Painter

  2. Institute for Quantum Information and Matter and Thomas J. Watson, Sr., Laboratory of Applied Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA

    Kejie Fang, Jie Luo & Oskar Painter

  3. Department of Physics, McGill University, 3600 rue University, Montréal, Quebec H3A 2T8, Canada

    Anja Metelmann & Aashish A. Clerk

  4. Department of Electrical Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA

    Anja Metelmann

  5. Department of Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA

    Matthew H. Matheny

  6. Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light, Günther-Scharowsky-Straße 1/Bau 24, 91058 Erlangen, Germany

    Florian Marquardt

  7. Department of Physics, Institute for Theoretical Physics, Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, 91058 Erlangen, Germany

    Florian Marquardt

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  1. Kejie Fang
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Contributions

K.F., F.M., A.M., A.A.C. and O.P. came up with the concept. K.F., O.P. and J.L. planned the experiment. K.F., J.L. and M.H.M. performed the device design and fabrication. K.F. and J.L. performed the measurements. K.F., J.L., A.M., A.A.C. and O.P. analysed the data. All authors contributed to the writing of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Oskar Painter.

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Fang, K., Luo, J., Metelmann, A. et al. Generalized non-reciprocity in an optomechanical circuit via synthetic magnetism and reservoir engineering. Nature Phys 13, 465–471 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys4009

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