Demonstration of Efficient Nonreciprocity in a Microwave Optomechanical Circuit

By G. Peterson, F. Lecocq, Katarina Cicak, Raymond W. Simmonds, J. Aumentado, John Teufel. 2017

174 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The ability to engineer nonreciprocal interactions is an essential tool in modern communication technology as well as a powerful resource for building quantum networks. Aside from large reverse isolation, a nonreciprocal device suitable for applications must also have high efficiency (low insertion loss) and low output noise. Recent theoretical and experimental studies have shown that nonreciprocal behavior can be achieved in optomechanical systems, but performance in these last two attributes has been limited. Here we demonstrate an efficient, frequency-converting microwave isolator based on the optomechanical interactions between electromagnetic fields and a mechanically compliant vacuum gap capacitor. We achieve simultaneous reverse isolation of more than 20 dB and insertion loss less than 1.5 dB over a bandwidth of 5 kHz. We characterize the nonreciprocal noise performance of the device, observing that the residual thermal noise from the mechanical environments is routed solely to the input of the isolator. Our measurements show quantitative agreement with a general coupled-mode theory. Unlike conventional isolators and circulators, these compact nonreciprocal devices do not require a static magnetic field, and they allow for dynamic control of the direction of isolation. With these advantages, similar devices could enable programmable, high-efficiency connections between disparate nodes of quantum networks, even efficiently bridging the microwave and optical domains.

Subfields: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, Materials Chemistry, Physical and Theoretical Chemistry

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/beb12e463aeedb5d50ca2f87e141453b3fa3e468

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In Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

In Materials Chemistry

In Physical and Theoretical Chemistry

Citations in the corpus

Microwave photonics with superconducting quantum circuits (2017, background): “[248], where isolation of 20 dB was achieved.”
Widely Tunable On-Chip Microwave Circulator for Superconducting Quantum Circuits (2017, methodology): “The affordances of using parametrically coupled modes to generate non-reciprocity are the relative simplicity of the circuit designs, and a wide versatility in function: in addition to realizing elementary non-reciprocal devices such as isolators [103] and circulators [99, 100], the parametric inter”