According to the Science and Technology Daily, Nankai University, Associate Professor Jin Liang from the School of Physical Science and Professor Song Zhi, used the unique asymmetry exhibited by one-way destructive interference to make the light behavior 'reformed' for the first time, realizing light waves that do not depend on the incident direction. Propagation and unidirectional laser emission. Related research papers were published in the new physics journal Physical Review Letters.
According to reports, light will transmit and reflect during propagation. Light travels in a time-invariant system. Light incident and transmitted from one direction is the same as light incident and transmitted in the opposite direction. This is called optical reciprocity. In order to achieve arbitrary control of light, changing the 'face' of light, it is necessary to first destroy the reciprocity of light. In the past, let the light 'changing flag', usually by optical nonlinear system or magneto-optical medium such as yttrium oxide. The nonlinear systems and the limitations of magneto-optical materials have greatly limited the optical development of the field. Therefore, how to destroy optical reciprocity without relying on optical nonlinear systems and magneto-optical media is a challenging physical problem. Currently, PT (Proton-Time) Symmetrical optical open system can achieve non-reciprocal reflection of light, and can not achieve non-reciprocal transmission of light.
In the research, Jin Liang and Song Zhi redesigned the Akharonov-Bohm interferometer with a single-cavity coupled cavity array, and realized the unidirectional destructive interference of incident light waves by using synthetic magnetic. Experimental results show that light waves When incident from the opposite direction, the symmetry of the phase of the outgoing wave is destroyed; the dissipation or gain is introduced into the side coupling cavity, and the symmetry of the probability of the outgoing wave is also destroyed, and the reciprocity of the light is completely destroyed. This one-way destructive interference is also It has two-way non-reflective characteristics, which greatly facilitates the design modulation and control changes of light. It can be easily applied to optical integrated devices, and is a new type of absorber, rectifier, isolator, amplitude modulator and other optical control devices and new lasers. Design provides a new way of thinking.
The study was also funded by the National Natural Science Foundation and the Tianjin Natural Science Foundation.
