Nonreciprocal transmission and optical isolation with effective magnetic fields in multimode optomechanical systems

Summary form only given. The creation of systems that violate reciprocity requires suitable forms of time-reversal symmetry breaking. For electromagnetic waves, the conventional way to achieve this is through a strong magnetic field that biases a material having a magneto-optic response. A vibrant search for alternative methods that mimic a magnetic field has taken shape in recent years. Of particular interest are systems that create a synthetic magnetic field that interacts with neutral particles, such as photons and phonons, as these could be used for communication platforms resilient to disorder and on-chip optical isolators and circulators.Here we discuss our progress in the creation and description of multimode optomechanical systems, where alternating optical and mechanical modes are coupled via a nonreciprocal optomechanical interaction. In particular, we experimentally demonstrate [2] how the core elements of such networks can be used to yield nonreciprocal transport of light. In addition, we determine the strengths and weaknesses of different implementations, including power requirements and resulting bandwidth.