Giant non-reciprocity and gyration through modulation-induced Hatano-Nelson coupling in integrated photonics

Abstract

Asymmetric energy exchange interactions, also known as Hatano-Nelson type couplings, enable the study of non-Hermitian physics and associated phenomena like the non-Hermitian skin effect and exceptional points (EP). Since these interactions are by definition non-reciprocal, there have been very few options for real-space implementations in integrated photonics. In this work, we show that real-space asymmetric couplings are readily achievable in integrated photonic systems through time-domain dynamic modulation. We experimentally study this concept using a two-resonator photonic molecule produced in a lithium niobate on insulator platform that is electro-optically modulated by rf stimuli. We demonstrate the dynamic tuning of the Hatano-Nelson coupling between the resonators, surpassing the asymmetry that has been achieved in previous work, to reach an EP for the first time. We are additionally able to flip the relative sign of the couplings for opposite directions by going past the EP. Using this capability, we show that the through-chain transport can be configured to exhibit both giant (60 dB) optical contrast as well as photonic gyration or non-reciprocal pi phase contrast.

References in corpus (31)

• Nonreciprocal light transmission in parity-time-symmetric whispering-gallery microcavities
• Non-Hermitian Physics
• Localization transitions in non-Hermitian quantum mechanics
• Topological phases of non-Hermitian systems
• Symmetry and Topology in Non-Hermitian Physics
• Topological Origin of Non-Hermitian Skin Effects
• Correspondence between winding numbers and skin modes in non-hermitian systems
• Observation of bulk boundary correspondence breakdown in topolectrical circuits
• Non-Hermitian Boundary Modes
• Efficient Light Funneling based on the non-Hermitian Skin Effect
• Vortex Pinning and Non-Hermitian Quantum Mechanics
• Synthetic Dimension in Photonics
• Non-reciprocal robotic metamaterials
• Hybrid higher-order skin-topological modes in non-reciprocal systems
• Synthetic dimensions in integrated photonics: From optical isolation to 4D quantum Hall physics
• Acoustic non-Hermitian skin effect from twisted winding topology
• Chiral voltage propagation in a self-calibrated topolectrical Chern circuit
• Non-Hermitian Delocalization and Eigenfunctions
• Breaking time-reversal symmetry with acoustic pumping of nanophotonic circuits
• A non-Hermitian $PT-$symmetric Bose-Hubbard model: eigenvalue rings from unfolding higher-order exceptional points
• Signatures of three coalescing eigenfunctions
• Non-Hermitian higher-order topological states in nonreciprocal and reciprocal systems with their electric-circuit realization
• Nonreciprocal Transmission of Microwave Acoustic Waves in Nonlinear Parity-Time Symmetric Resonators
• Controlling the flow of light using the inhomogeneous effective gauge field that emerges from dynamic modulation
• Electrically driven linear optical isolation through phonon mediated Autler-Townes splitting
• Complex Skin Modes in Non-Hermitian Coupled Laser Arrays
• Non-Hermitian Photonic Lattices: tutorial
• Giant Non-reciprocity Near Exceptional Point Degeneracies
• Strong nonreciprocity in modulated resonator chains through synthetic electric and magnetic fields
• Non-Hermitian boundary spectral winding
• On-chip optical non-reciprocity through a synthetic Hall effect for photons

Cited by in corpus (4)

• A comprehensive review on developments of synthetic dimensions
• Critical Dynamics and Cyclic Memory Retrieval in Non-reciprocal Hopfield Networks
• $\mathcal{P}\mathcal{T}$-like phase transitions from square roots of supersymmetric Hamiltonians
• Nonreciprocity induced spatiotemporal chaos: Reactive vs dissipative routes