Heidelberg 2015 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 47: Nano-Optics II

Q 47.2: Group Report

Thursday, March 26, 2015, 11:30–12:00, C/HSO

Optical isolation based on chiral interaction of light and matter in a nanophotonic waveguide — Clément Sayrin, Christian Junge, Rudolf Mitsch, Bernhard Albrecht, Danny O’Shea, Philipp Schneeweiss, •Jürgen Volz, and Arno Rauschenbeutel — Vienna Center for Quantum Science and Technology, Atominstitut, TU Wien

Nanophotonic components confine light at the wavelength scale and enable the control of the flow of light in an integrated optical environment. Such strong confinement leads to an inherent link between the local polarization of the light and its propagation direction [1-3]. We employ this effect to demonstrate low-loss nonreciprocal transmission of light at the single-photon level through a silica nanofiber in two different experimental schemes. We either use an ensemble of spin-polarized atoms weakly coupled to the nanofiber-guided mode [2] or a single spin-polarized atom strongly coupled to the nanofiber via a whispering-gallery-mode resonator [1]. We observe a strong imbalance between the transmissions in forward and reverse direction of 8 dB and 13 dB for the atomic ensemble and the resonator-enhanced scheme, respectively. At the same time, the forward transmissions still exceeds 70%. The resulting optical isolators exemplify a new class of nanophotonic devices based on chiral interaction of light and matter, where the state of individual quantum emitters defines the directional behavior.
[1] C. Junge et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 213604 (2013).
[2] R. Mitsch et al., arXiv:1406.0896 (2014).
[3] J. Petersen et al., Science 346, 67 (2014).