Non-reciprocal physical systems exhibit direction-dependent propagation of light, enabling a myriad of devices such as diodes and circulators. A new experiment demonstrates non-reciprocal amplification of light via atomic spins, driving photons on a one-way street through optical nanofibres.
References
Faraday, M. Philos. Trans.R. Soc. London 136, 1–20 (1846).
Caloz, C. et al. Phys. Rev. Appl. 10, 047001 (2018).
Pucher, S., Liedl, C., Jin, S., Rauschenbeutel, A. & Schneeweiss, P. Nat. Photon. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-022-00987-z (2022).
Scheucher, M., Hilico, A., Will, E., Volz, J. & Rauschenbeutel, A. Science 354, 1577–1580 (2016).
Sayrin, C. et al. Phys. Rev. X 5, 041036 (2015).
Van Mechelen, T. & Jacob, Z. Optica 3, 118–126 (2016).
Mathur, B. S., Tang, H. & Happer, W. Phys. Rev. 171, 11 (1968).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Sinha, K., Goldschmidt, E.A. An atomic spin on amplification of light. Nat. Photon. 16, 339–340 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-022-00992-2
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-022-00992-2
- Springer Nature Limited