English

Circumventing Magnetic Reciprocity: a Diode for Magnetic Fields

Classical Physics 2018-11-28 v3

Abstract

Lorentz reciprocity establishes a stringent relation between electromagnetic fields and their sources. For static magnetic fields, a relation between magnetic sources and fields can be drawn in analogy to the Green's reciprocity principle for electrostatics. Here we theoretically and experimentally show that a linear and isotropic electrically conductive material moving with constant velocity is able to circumvent the magnetic reciprocity principle and realize a diode for magnetic fields. This result is demonstrated by measuring an extremely asymmetric magnetic coupling between two coils that are located near a moving conductor. The possibility to generate controlled unidirectional magnetic couplings breaks down one of the most deeply-established relations in classical electromagnetism, namely that mutual inductances are symmetric. This result might provide novel possibilities for applications and technologies based on magnetically coupled elements.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1802.00832,
  title  = {Circumventing Magnetic Reciprocity: a Diode for Magnetic Fields},
  author = {J. Prat-Camps and P. Maurer and G. Kirchmair and O. Romero-Isart},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1802.00832},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

main text: 5 pages, 3 figures; supplemental material: 15 pages, 4 figures, 1 table

R2 v1 2026-06-23T00:09:13.791Z