Electrically driven nonreciprocity induced by interband photonic transition on a silicon chip

Phys Rev Lett. 2012 Jul 20;109(3):033901. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.033901. Epub 2012 Jul 16.

Abstract

We demonstrate electrically driven nonreciprocity on a silicon chip. By achieving an indirect interband photonic transition, we show that the transmission coefficients between two single-mode waveguides become dependent on the propagation directions only in the presence of the electrical drive. Our structure is characterized by a nonsymmetric scattering matrix identical to a linear magneto-optical device.