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arXiv:2604.25141 · Optics Letters

Nonreciprocal magnon blockade based on nonlinear effects

Han-Qiu Zhang, Shuang-Shuo Chu, Jian-Song Zhang, Wen-Xue Zhong, Guang-Ling Cheng

quant-phSubmitted Apr 28, 2026• Announced Apr 29, 2026• 23 citations
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Abstract

We present an alternative scheme to achieve nonreciprocal unconventional magnon blockade (NUMB) in a hybrid system formed by two microwave cavities and one yttrium iron garnet (YIG) sphere, where the pump and signal cavities interact nonlinearly with each other and the signal cavity is coupled to the YIG sphere. It is found that the nonlinear coupling occurs between the pump cavity and magnon modes due to the dispersive interactions among three bosonic modes. Meanwhile, the Kerr nonlinearity is present in the pump cavity. Based on these nonlinear effects, a nonreciprocal magnon blockade could be achieved with the help of weak parametric driving of the pump cavity. The present work provides an alternative method to prepare single magnon resource, which may be helpful for quantum information processing.

Journal reference
Opt. Lett. 49, 2009 (2024)
DOI
10.1364/OL.520578
Comments
6 pages, 3 figures

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We present an alternative scheme to achieve nonreciprocal unconventional magnon blockade (NUMB) in a hybrid system formed by two microwave cavities and one yttrium iron garnet (YIG) sphere, where the pump and signal cavities interact nonlinearly with each other and the signal cavity is coupled to the YIG sphere. It is found that the nonlinear coupling occurs between the pump cavity and magnon modes due to the dispersive interactions among three bosonic modes. Meanwhile, the Kerr nonlinearity is present in the pump cavity. Based on these nonlinear effects, a nonreciprocal magnon blockade could be achieved with the help of weak parametric driving of the pump cavity. The present work provides an alternative method to prepare single magnon resource, which may be helpful for quantum information processing.
We propose a scheme to achieve nonreciprocal unconventional magnon blockade (NUMB) based on the Barnett and Sagnac effects in a hybrid nonlinear system, in which a microwave cavity with two modes and a yttrium iron garnet (YIG) sphere are included. Two cavity modes with the fundamental and the second-harmonic frequencies are coupled by virtue of the χ (2) nonlinear materials, and meanwhile, the fundamental mode interacts with the magnon mode via the magnetic dipole interaction. Under weak driving and coupling conditions, the magnon blockade is obtained, where the second-order correlation function has been used to analyze the magnon antibunching based on the numerical simulations and analytical calculations. The underlying mechanism is that quantum destructive interference occurs between different transition paths. In addition, the combination of the Barnett and Sagnac effects, which leads to the simultaneous frequency shifts of the magnon and two microwave modes, could induce the nonreciprocity of magnon antibunching due to the positive and negative detunings via changing the direction of the external fields. The scheme we present is based on the weak near-resonant coupling between quantum modes and the weak driving of magnon and photon modes, which may demonstrate the potential for achieving the single-magnon resource in a hybrid cavity magnonic system and provide valuable guidance for the design of nonreciprocal magnon devices.
Abstract Nonreciprocal devices, allowing to manipulate one‐way signals, are crucial to quantum information processing and quantum networks. Here a nonlinear cavity‐magnon system is proposed, consisting of a microwave cavity coupled to one or two yttrium–iron–garnet (YIG) spheres supporting magnons with Kerr nonlinearity, to investigate nonreciprocal unconventional photon blockade. The nonreciprocity originates from the direction‐dependent Kerr effect, distinctly different from previous proposals with spinning cavities and dissipative couplings. For a single sphere case, nonreciprocal unconventional photon blockade can be realized by manipulating the nonreciprocal destructive interference between two active paths, via varying the Kerr coefficient from positive to negative, or vice versa. By optimizing the system parameters, the perfect and well‐tuned nonreciprocal unconventional photon blockade can be predicted. For the case of two spheres with opposite Kerr effects, only reciprocal unconventional photon blockade can be observed when two cavity‐magnon coupling strengths Kerr strengths are symmetric. However, when coupling strengths or Kerr strengths become asymmetric, nonreciprocal unconventional photon blockade appears. This implies that two‐sphere nonlinear cavity‐magnon systems can be used to switch the transition between reciprocal and nonreciprocal unconventional photon blockades. This study offers a potential platform for investigating the nonreciprocal photon blockade effect in nonlinear cavity magnonics.
We demonstrate nonreciprocal macroscopic entanglement between magnon modes in two yttrium-iron-garnet (YIG) spheres induced by the Kerr effect stemming from magnetocrystalline anisotropy. The two YIG spheres with different sizes are placed in a microwave cavity, and the magnon modes couple to the microwave cavity photons by the magnetic dipole interaction. The microwave cavity can be adiabatically eliminated by far detuning from the magnon modes, and thus mediates the indirect interaction between two magnon modes. The magnon Kerr nonlinearity of the small YIG sphere is enhanced by the appropriate drive. Meanwhile, the sign of the Kerr coefficient can be manipulated by changing the direction of the bias magnetic field, in turn causing the nonreciprocity of magnon-magnon entanglement. We numerically analyze the optimal parameter regions for generating the entanglement. The properties of the nonreciprocal entanglement are explored by analyzing the defined bidirectional contrast ratio, which reveals the different strategies for controlling the nonreciprocity of the entanglement. The presented scheme provides an alternative method for the nonreciprocal macroscopic entanglement and may have potential applications in nonreciprocal quantum devices and macroscopic quantum effects.
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We propose an alternative scheme to achieve the cross-correlations between magnon and photon in a hybrid nonlinear system including two microwave cavities and one yttrium iron garnet (YIG) sphere, where two cavities nonlinearly interact and meanwhile one of cavities couples to magnon representing the collective excitation in YIG sphere via magnetic dipole interaction. Based on dispersive couplings between two cavities and between one cavity and magnon with the larger detunings, the nonlinear interaction occurs between the other cavity and magnon, which plays a crucial role in generating quantum correlations. By analyzing the second-order correlation functions via numerical simulations and analytical calculations, the remarkable nonclassical correlations are existent in such a system, where the magnon blockade and photon antibunching could be obtainable on demand. The scheme we present is focused on the magnon-photon cross-correlations in the weak coupling regime and relaxes the requirements of experimental conditions, which may have potential applications in quantum information processing in the hybrid system.
Abstract Coherent quantum transduction between microwave and optical signals is of great importance for long-distance quantum communication. Here we propose a novel scheme for the implementation of nonreciprocal single-photon state conversion between microwave and optical modes based on a hybrid magnonic system. A yttrium–iron–garnet (YIG) sphere with both the optomechanical and the optomagnetic properties is exploited to couple with a three-dimensional superconducting microwave resonator. The magnetostatic mode of the YIG sphere is treated as an intermediate to interact with the microwave and optical modes simultaneously. By manipulating the amplitudes and phase differences between the couplings via external driving fields, we show that the nonreciprocal microwave-light single-photon state conversion can be realized via the quantum interference effect.