title: Nonreciprocal light propagation in a silicon photonic circuit.
abstract: Optical communications and computing require on-chip nonreciprocal light propagation to isolate and stabilize different chip-scale optical components. We have designed and fabricated a metallic-silicon waveguide system in which the optical potential is modulated along the length of the waveguide such that nonreciprocal light propagation is obtained on a silicon photonic chip. Nonreciprocal light transport and one-way photonic mode conversion are demonstrated at the wavelength of 1.55 micrometers in both simulations and experiments. Our system is compatible with conventional complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor processing, providing a way to chip-scale optical isolators for optical communications and computing.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA. lfeng@caltech.edu
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Maurice
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ayache
authors.forename: Jingqing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Ye-Long
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Ming-Hui
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Yan-Feng
authors.initials: YF
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Yeshaiahu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fainman
authors.forename: Axel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Scherer