title: On-Chip Optical Nonreciprocity Using an Active Microcavity.
abstract: Optically nonreciprocal devices provide critical functionalities such as light isolation and circulation in integrated photonic circuits for optical communications and information processing, but have been difficult to achieve. By exploring gain-saturation nonlinearity, we demonstrate on-chip optical nonreciprocity with excellent isolation performance within telecommunication wavelengths using only one toroid microcavity. Compatible with current complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor process, our compact and simple scheme works for a very wide range of input power levels from ~10 microwatts down to ~10 nanowatts, and exhibits remarkable properties of one-way light transport with sufficiently low insertion loss. These superior features make our device become a promising critical building block indispensable for future integrated nanophotonic networks.
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and School of Physics, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
authors.forename: Xiaoshun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and School of Physics, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
authors.forename: Chao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and School of Physics, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
authors.forename: Hongya
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and School of Physics, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
authors.forename: Shiyue
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hua
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and School of Physics, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
authors.forename: Long
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and School of Physics, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and School of Physics, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Hua
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and School of Physics, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.|Department of Physics, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701, USA.
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Xiao