科研之友
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摘要
Motivated by the demands of integrated and silicon photonics, there is significant interest in optical isolators in on-chip integrated systems. Recent works have therefore explored nonlinear optical isolators and demonstrated non-reciprocal transmission contrast when waves are injected in forward or backward directions(1-8). However, whether such nonlinear isolators can provide complete isolation under practical operating conditions remains an open question. Here, we analytically prove and numerically demonstrate a dynamic reciprocity in nonlinear optical isolators based on Kerr or Kerr-like nonlinearity. We show that, when a signal is transmitting through, such isolators are constrained by a reciprocity relation for a class of small-amplitude additional waves and, as a result, cannot provide isolation for arbitrary backward-propagating noise. This result points to an important limitation on the use of nonlinear optical isolators for signal processing and for laser protection.
- 出版日期2015-6
