Route-asymmetrical light transmission of a fiber-chip-fiber optomechanical system

Li LIU1,Yunhong DING2,Xinlun CAI3,4,Jianji DONG1,*(),Xinliang ZHANG1

1. Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics (WNLO), Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China 2. Department of Photonics Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark 3. State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, School of Physics and Engineering, Sun Yatsen University, Guangzhou 510275, China 4. Centre for Quantum Photonics, H. H. Wills Physics Laboratory, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1UB, UK

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Abstract

In this paper, we proposed and experimentally demonstrated a route-asymmetrical light transmission scheme based on the thermal radiative effect, which means that forward and backward propagations of an optical device have different transmittances provided they are not present simultaneously. Employing a fiber-chip-fiber optomechanical system, our scheme has successfully achieved a broad operation bandwidth of at least 24 nm and an ultra-high route-asymmetrical transmission ratio (RATR) up to 63 dB. The route-asymmetrical device has been demonstrated effectively with not only the continuous-wave (CW) light but also 10 Gbit/s on-off-keying (OOK) digital signals. Above mentioned unique features can be mostly attributed to the significant characteristics of the thermal radiative effect, which could cause a fiber displacement up to tens of microns. The powerful and significant thermal radiative effect opens up a new opportunity and method for route-asymmetrical light transmission. Moreover, this research may have important applications in all-optical systems, such as the optical limiters and ultra-low loss switches.