2020/09/21 by Xin-Xin Hu, Zhu-Bo Wang, Pengfei Zhang +9 · 57 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Faraday effect #Isolation (microbiology) #Laser #Magnetization #Mechanical and Optical Resonators #Noise (video) #Nonclassical light #Photon #Photonics #Quantum #Quantum optics and atomic interactions #Realization (probability) #physics.optics
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/s41467-021-22597-z
published in Nature Communications 12(1), 2389 (Nature Portfolio) · 6 pages, 5 figures
arxiv created 2020/09/21 · openalex created_date 2020/09/25 · openalex publication_date 2021/04/22 · arxiv updated 2021/05/12 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The realization of optical non-reciprocity is crucial for many applications, and also of fundamental importance for manipulating and protecting the photons with desired time-reversal symmetry. Recently, various new mechanisms of magnetic-free non-reciprocity have been proposed and implemented, avoiding the limitation of the strong magnetic field imposed by the Faraday effect. However, due to the difficulties in separating the signal photons from the drive laser and the noise photons induced by the drive laser, these devices exhibit limited isolation performances and their quantum noise properties are rarely studied. Here, we demonstrate an approach of magnetic-free non-reciprocity by optically-induced magnetization in an atom ensemble. Excellent isolation (highest isolation ratio is [Formula: see text]) is observed over a power dynamic range of 7 orders of magnitude, with the noiseless property verified by quantum statistics measurements. The approach is applicable to other atoms and atom-like emitters, paving the way for future studies of integrated photonic non-reciprocal devices.