Strong Nonreciprocity in Modulated Resonator Chains through Synthetic Electric and Magnetic Fields

Phys Rev Lett. 2019 Aug 9;123(6):063901. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.063901.

Abstract

We study nonreciprocity in spatiotemporally modulated 1D resonator chains from the perspective of equivalent 2D resonator arrays with a synthetic dimension and transverse synthetic electric and magnetic fields. The synthetic fields are respectively related to temporal and spatial modulation of the resonator chain, and we show that their combination can induce strong transmission nonreciprocity, i.e., complete isolation with only a weak perturbative modulation. This nonreciprocal effect is analogous to the Hall effect for charged particles. We experimentally implement chains of two and three spatiotemporally modulated resonators and measure over 58 dB of isolation contrast.