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Title: Optical isolation via unidirectional resonant photon tunneling

Abstract

We show that tri-layer structures combining epsilon-negative and magneto-optical material layers can exhibit unidirectional resonant photon tunneling phenomena that can discriminate between circularly polarized (CP) waves of given handedness impinging from opposite directions, or between CP waves with different handedness impinging from the same direction. This physical principle, which can also be interpreted in terms of a Fabry-Perot-type resonance, may be utilized to design compact optical isolators for CP waves. Within this framework, we derive simple analytical conditions and design formulae, and quantitatively assess the isolation performance, also taking into account the unavoidable imperfections and nonidealities.

Authors:
; ;  [1];  [2];  [3]
  1. Waves Group, Department of Engineering, University of Sannio, I-82100 Benevento (Italy)
  2. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712 (United States)
  3. Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104 (United States)
Publication Date:
OSTI Identifier:
22275622
Resource Type:
Journal Article
Journal Name:
Journal of Applied Physics
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 115; Journal Issue: 4; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); Journal ID: ISSN 0021-8979
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY; DIELECTRIC MATERIALS; LAYERS; MAGNETIC MATERIALS; MAGNETO-OPTICAL EFFECTS; PERFORMANCE; PERMITTIVITY; PHOTONS; RESONANCE; TUNNEL EFFECT

Citation Formats

Moccia, Massimo, Castaldi, Giuseppe, Galdi, Vincenzo, Alù, Andrea, and Engheta, Nader. Optical isolation via unidirectional resonant photon tunneling. United States: N. p., 2014. Web. doi:10.1063/1.4862977.
Moccia, Massimo, Castaldi, Giuseppe, Galdi, Vincenzo, Alù, Andrea, & Engheta, Nader. Optical isolation via unidirectional resonant photon tunneling. United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4862977
Moccia, Massimo, Castaldi, Giuseppe, Galdi, Vincenzo, Alù, Andrea, and Engheta, Nader. 2014. "Optical isolation via unidirectional resonant photon tunneling". United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4862977.
@article{osti_22275622,
title = {Optical isolation via unidirectional resonant photon tunneling},
author = {Moccia, Massimo and Castaldi, Giuseppe and Galdi, Vincenzo and Alù, Andrea and Engheta, Nader},
abstractNote = {We show that tri-layer structures combining epsilon-negative and magneto-optical material layers can exhibit unidirectional resonant photon tunneling phenomena that can discriminate between circularly polarized (CP) waves of given handedness impinging from opposite directions, or between CP waves with different handedness impinging from the same direction. This physical principle, which can also be interpreted in terms of a Fabry-Perot-type resonance, may be utilized to design compact optical isolators for CP waves. Within this framework, we derive simple analytical conditions and design formulae, and quantitatively assess the isolation performance, also taking into account the unavoidable imperfections and nonidealities.},
doi = {10.1063/1.4862977},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/22275622}, journal = {Journal of Applied Physics},
issn = {0021-8979},
number = 4,
volume = 115,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Jan 28 00:00:00 EST 2014},
month = {Tue Jan 28 00:00:00 EST 2014}
}