English

Reversible optical isolators and quasi-circulators using a magneto-optical Fabry-P\'{e}rot cavity

Optics 2024-04-17 v1

Abstract

Nonreciprocal optical devices are essential for laser protection, modern optical communication and quantum information processing by enforcing one-way light propagation. The conventional Faraday magneto-optical nonreciprocal devices rely on a strong magnetic field, which is provided by a permanent magnet. As a result, the isolation direction of such devices is fixed and severely restricts their applications in quantum networks.In this work, we experimentally demonstrate the simultaneous one-way transmission and unidirectional reflection by using a magneto-optical Fabry-P\'{e}rot cavity and a magnetic field strength of 50 \milli\tesla50~\milli\tesla. An optical isolator and a three-port quasi-circulator are realized based on this nonreciprocal cavity system. The isolator achieves an isolation ratio of up to 22 \deci\bel22~\deci\bel and an averaged insertion loss down to 0.97 \deci\bel0.97~\deci\bel. The quasi-circulator is realized with a fidelity exceeding 99%99\% and an overall survival probability of 89.9%89.9\%, corresponding to an insertion loss of 0.46 \deci\bel\sim 0.46~\deci\bel. The magnetic field is provided by an electromagnetic coil, thereby allowing for reversing the light circulating path. The reversible quasi-circulator paves the way for building reconfigurable quantum networks.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2404.10470,
  title  = {Reversible optical isolators and quasi-circulators using a magneto-optical Fabry-P\'{e}rot cavity},
  author = {Tiantian Zhang and Wenpeng Zhou and Zhixiang Li and Yutao Tang and Fan Xu and Haodong Wu and Han Zhang and Jiang-Shan Tang and Ya-Ping Ruan and Keyu Xia},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2404.10470},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

8 pages, 7 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-28T15:55:42.073Z