Unidirectional reflection from an integrated ‘taiji’ microresonator

Published in Photonics Research, 2020

A. Calabrese, F. Ramiro-Manzano, H. M. Price, S. Biasi, M. Bernard, M. Ghulinyan, I. Carusotto, and L. Pavesi
Photonics Res. 8, 1333 (2020)

https://www.osapublishing.org/prj/abstract.cfm?uri=prj-8-8-1333

We study light transmission and reflection from an integrated microresonator device, formed by a circular microresonator coupled to a bus waveguide, with an embedded S-shaped additional crossover waveguide element that selectively couples counter-propagating modes in a propagation-direction-dependent way. The overall shape of the device resembles a “taiji” symbol, hence its name. While Lorentz reciprocity is preserved in transmission, the peculiar geometry allows us to exploit the non-Hermitian nature of the system to obtain high-contrast unidirectional reflection with negligible reflection for light incident in one direction and a significant reflection in the opposite direction.