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Optics Express

Mechanically controllable nonreciprocal transmission and perfect absorption of photons

Nan-nan Zhou, Liqiang Zhang, Chang‐shui Yu

Published Jun 14, 2022• 8 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Photon absorption and nonreciprocal photon transmission are studied in a rotating optical resonator coupled with an atomic ensemble. It is demonstrated that the perfect photon absorption is accompanied by optical bistability when the resonator is static. If the spinning detune is adjusted to some particular values, we find that the amplified unidirectional photon transmission can be realized. We have explicitly given the perfect photon absorption conditions and the maximal adjustable amplification rate. It is found that the coupling of the resonator and the atomic ensemble is necessary for perfect photon absorption, and the phase difference of the two input fields only affects the perfect absorption point. It gives new insight into the design of photon absorbers and optical switches.

DOI
10.1364/oe.460158

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Photon absorption and nonreciprocal photon transmission are studied in a rotating optical resonator coupled with an atomic ensemble. It is demonstrated that the perfect photon absorption is accompanied by optical bistability when the resonator is static. If the spinning detune is adjusted to some particular values, we find that the amplified unidirectional photon transmission can be realized. We have explicitly given the perfect photon absorption conditions and the maximal adjustable amplification rate. It is found that the coupling of the resonator and the atomic ensemble is necessary for perfect photon absorption, and the phase difference of the two input fields only affects the perfect absorption point. It gives new insight into the design of photon absorbers and optical switches.
We investigate the optical bistability behavior of a two-sided cavity quantum electrodynamics system. The nonlinear input–output relation of the atom–cavity system coupled by two input light fields from two ends of the cavity can be controlled by a control light from the free space. Different from the common optical bistability phenomenon in the atom–cavity system, two separate bistability regions are observed. The bistability threshold and hysteresis loop can be well controlled by the control light. Because of field interference, the output light intensity becomes different with varying the relative phase of two incident fields. The output field intensity at the threshold of the first bistability region approaches zero with either increasing the detuning or lowering the intensity of the control light; thus, the perfect photon absorption condition is extended and a broadband near-perfect photon absorber is realized. Furthermore, we show an asymmetrical transmission feature due to field interference.
We propose a scheme to investigate the perfect photon absorption in a hybrid atom-optomechanical system under and beyond the low-excitation limit. The perfect photon absorption is present in both cases and always accompanied by the optical bistability or multistability. We find that the coupling with the atomic ensemble provides the sufficient and necessary condition for the perfect photon absorption in such a system, but the optomechanical coupling is only a necessary condition for the bistability (in the low-excitation regime)/multistability (beyond the low-excitation limit). It is especially interesting that the optical nonlinearities induced by the nonlinear optomechanical interaction and nonlinear atomic excitation can be overlap-added, which results in the optical multistability and further causes an additional perfect photon absorption point.
Abstract Optical nonreciprocal transmission with unidirectional amplification in a gain-assisted cavity-QED system is investigated. The results demonstrate that unidirectional amplification of this system is induced by the phase difference between the atom–cavity coupling strengths associated with the optical gain and a phase-controlled unidirectional amplifier can be achieved. The optimal parameter conditions for the observation of ideal unidirectional amplification are obtained analytically, and are shown to be dependent on phase, atom–cavity and cavity–cavity coupling strength, and atomic dissipation. In particular, it is found that atomic dissipation is another essential condition for the realization of nonreciprocal amplification other than breaking of the time-reversal symmetry, and our unidirectional amplifier is robust against atom–cavity coupling mismatch. Such unidirectional amplifiers are crucial nonreciprocal devices for controlling photon transmission and may have potential applications in quantum information processing.
We design an optical modulator based on an optical resonant cavity that coherently couples to an ensemble of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers, controlled by an external magnetic field. We reveal the coherent perfect absorption (CPA) of photons in the system and demonstrate how to suppress, block, and amplify light transmission by manipulating the amplitude, direction, and detuning of the external magnetic field, as well as the phase difference between the input light fields. This design leverages the friendly controllability of NV centers by an external magnetic field, suggesting the potential to develop advanced photonic devices.
We investigate the two-channel nonreciprocal scattering of a coherent atomic ensemble under the linear spatial Kramers-Kronig modulation, which has potential applications in chiral phase modulation and broadband coherent perfect or asymmetric absorbers that yet are typically unavailable in conventional continuous atomic media. In the regime of electromagnetically induced transparency, we observe the direction-dependent (chiral) phase modulation, which may enrich the burgeoning chiral quantum optics and can be used for implementing photonic filters, unidirectional amplifiers, and coherent asymmetric absorbers. By simplifying the stringent generation condition of coherent perfect absorption (CPA), we demonstrate the possibility of realizing two-channel CPA with broadband and sharp edges. Our proposal may be used to design and integrate some all-optical functional devices at extremely low power levels for quantum information processing and optical communication networks.
We study optical bistable behavior of a Rydberg electromagnetically-induced transparency (EIT) atomic medium in a unidirectional optical ring-cavity. Due to strong van del Waal (vdW) interactions between the atoms, both optical nonlinear dispersion and nonlinear absorption coefficients are enhanced substantially. Under the condition of two-photon on resonance, we show that probe one-photon detuning can change the phase of the third order nonlinearity coefficient, which tunes the character of the optical bistability within different ratios of dispersive and absorptive types. This enables the single-photon control over photonic devices for further manipulation of light other than switches and transistors. More interestingly, we predict appearance of a scaling phenomena for optical bistabilities with the factors of coupling Rabi frequency and atomic density. Additionally, we also discuss the influence of the cavity detuning and the mirror transmission coefficient on the optical bistable behavior. The strong bistable feature provides a good ingredient for realizing all-optical logic gate devices in optical computing.