Chiral symmetry breaking in a microring optical cavity by engineered dissipation

  • Fang Jie Shu
  • , Chang Ling Zou
  • , Xu Bo Zou
  • , Lan Yang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

22 Scopus citations

Abstract

We propose a method to break the chiral symmetry of light in traveling wave resonators by coupling the optical modes to a lossy channel. Through the engineered dissipation, an indirect dissipative coupling between two oppositely propagating modes can be realized. Combined with reactive coupling, it can break the chiral symmetry of the resonator, allowing light propagating only in one direction. The chiral symmetry breaking is numerically verified by the simulation of an electromagnetic field in a microring cavity, with proper refractive index distributions. This work provokes us to emphasize the dissipation engineering in photonics, and that the generalized idea can also be applied to other systems.

Original languageEnglish
Article number013848
JournalPhysical Review A
Volume94
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 28 2016

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