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METAMATERIALS

Asymmetric control of light at the nanoscale

Nature Photonics volume 16, pages 556–557 (2022)Cite this article

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Breaking reciprocity at the nanoscale can produce directional formation of images due to the asymmetric nonlinear optical response of subwavelength anisotropic resonators. The self-induced passive non-reciprocity has advantages compared to magnet or time modulation approaches and may impact both classical and quantum photonics.

The breaking of symmetry in physical systems can have fundamental implications in their response and alter their operation in a profound and fundamental way. Interestingly, the tantalizing task of asymmetric control of light due to nonlinear light–matter interactions at the nanoscale can lead to the design of novel nanophotonic components, such as asymmetric imaging devices and non-reciprocal directional optical filters. These appealing optical functionalities are mainly hindered by the weak non-reciprocal response of nanophotonic systems and the difficulty in designing asymmetric subwavelength resonators with enhanced optical nonlinear response.

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Fig. 1: Asymmetric imaging generation with nonlinear anisotropic dielectric metasurfaces.

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  1. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA

    Christos Argyropoulos

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  1. Christos Argyropoulos
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Correspondence to Christos Argyropoulos.

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Argyropoulos, C. Asymmetric control of light at the nanoscale. Nat. Photon. 16, 556–557 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-022-01045-4

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