English

Synchronization and temporal nonreciprocity of optical microresonators via spontaneous symmetry breaking

Optics 2019-07-09 v1 Quantum Physics

Abstract

Synchronization is of importance in both fundamental and applied physics, but their demonstration at the micro/nanoscale is mainly limited to low-frequency oscillations like mechanical resonators. Here, we report the synchronization of two coupled optical microresonators, in which the high-frequency resonances in optical domain are aligned with reduced noise. It is found that two types of synchronization emerge with either the first- or second-order transition, both presenting a process of spontaneous symmetry breaking. In the second-order regime, the synchronization happens with an invariant topological character number and a larger detuning than that of the first-order case. Furthermore, an unconventional hysteresis behavior is revealed for a time-dependent coupling strength, breaking the static limitation and the temporal reciprocity. The synchronization of optical microresonators offers great potential in reconfigurable simulations of many-body physics and scalable photonic devices on a chip.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1907.03323,
  title  = {Synchronization and temporal nonreciprocity of optical microresonators via spontaneous symmetry breaking},
  author = {Da Xu and Zi-Zhao Han and Yu-Kun Lu and Qihuang Gong and Cheng-Wei Qiu and Gang Chen and Yun-Feng Xiao},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1907.03323},
  year   = {2019}
}