EFRI NewLAW: Non-Reciprocal Wave Propagation Devices by Fermionic Emulation and Exceptional Point Physics

目前还没有一种设备能有效地让光朝一个方向前进，但却阻止它朝相反的方向前进。 作为光传播的单向通道的设备可以通过以紧凑和更节能的方式添加新功能来彻底改变通信系统设计。 类似地，通过抑制后向散射，可以使电子产品更加节能。 在过去的十年中，在材料中波传播的物理学方面的新发现，为人们如何实现光波和电子波的单向器件提供了诱人的线索。 然而，将这些提示应用于实际的工程设备，需要理论设计和材料和设备制造的实验进展。 通过汇集一个具有必要技能的多元化和多学科团队，该项目旨在开发这些进步背后的基础科学，并通过实验展示未来信息系统的单向设备。 这个NewLAW EFRI团队将研究光子，极化激元，等离子体激元和电子波的拓扑，手性和非互易传输。这将通过使用专门设计的材料系统和器件结构来实现，这些材料系统和器件结构为电子、光子和光-物质混合体提供了非平凡的拓扑性质，例如集体等离子体激元和trion-极化激元的非平凡表现。通过以非平凡的方式设计电子和光子之间的相互作用，将探索新科学和新工程技术。而不是光子或激子，trion是费米子与净电荷和自旋将被调查的非互易光输运的trion极化激元的形式。代替等离子体，手性等离子体将用于非互易传输。作为非互易光传输的示范，将实现一种新颖的光学隔离器，其同时展示先前实施例中缺乏的高线性度、高带宽和高动态范围特性。非厄米系统的丰富物理将被用来实现新颖的拓扑增强非互易波导。在电子波的背景下，类似的非厄米物理效应将探讨电子非互易性。在这种情况下，通过电子隧穿在倏逝复动量域中的传播将在专门设计的材料异质结构中的器件平台中进行探索。EFRI团队将结合联合收割机理论研究、新材料合成和非互易器件制造来实现上述目标。由于缺乏有效的非互易波传播设备，目前限制了通信系统中的几项功能，该团队的研究结果有望揭示新的物理和工程可能性，为通信系统的发展做出贡献。所提出的器件的实现需要由理论设计指导的统一主题，以提供数学和物理理解和指导，实验实现专门设计的材料，如2D晶体异质结构和III族氮化物半导体，将这些材料组装成指定几何形状的器件结构的纳米制造，最后，测试和测量预测的非互易波传输。其总体目标是促进对新型电子和光子介质中非互易性基本原理的理解，并利用这些原理实现具有上级性能的非互易器件。EFRI团队汇集了五名具有实现这些目标所需技能的研究人员。

No device exists today that efficiently allows light to move forward in one direction, but stops it from moving in reverse. Devices that serve as one-way lanes for light propagation can revolutionize communication system design by adding new functionalities in a compact and more energy-efficient way. Similarly, electronics can be made more energy-efficient by suppressing back scattering. New discoveries in the past decade in the physics of wave propagation in materials have given tantalizing hints as to how one may achieve one-way devices for light and electron waves. Taking these hints towards practical engineering devices, however, requires theoretical design and experimental advances in materials and device fabrication. By bringing together a diverse and multidisciplinary team with the necessary skills, this project aims to develop the fundamental science behind such advances and experimentally demonstrate one-way devices for future information systems. This NewLAW EFRI team will investigate topological, chiral, and non-reciprocal transport of photons, polaritons, plasmons, and electron waves. This will be achieved by using specially designed material systems and device structures that provide non-trivial topological properties for electrons, for photons, and for light-matter hybrids such as non-trivial manifestations of collective plasmons and trion-polaritons. By engineering the interactions between electrons and photons in non-trivial ways, new science and new engineering technologies will be explored. Instead of photons or excitons, trions that are fermions with net charge and spin will be investigated for non-reciprocal light transport in the form of trion-polaritons. Instead of plasmons, chiral plasmons will be used for non-reciprocal transport. As a demonstration of non-reciprocal light transport, a novel optical isolator will be realized that demonstrates simultaneously high linearity, high bandwidth and high dynamic range - characteristics lacking in previous embodiments. The rich physics of non-Hermitian systems will be used to realize novel topologically-enhanced non-reciprocal waveguides. Similar non-Hermitian physics effects in the context of electron waves will be explored for electronic non-reciprocity. In this case, propagation in the evanescent complex momentum domain via electron tunneling will be explored in a device platform in specially designed material heterostructure. The EFRI team will combine theoretical research, with synthesis of new materials, and fabrication of non-reciprocal devices to achieve the above goals. Because the lack of efficient non-reciprocal wave propagation devices currently limits several functionalities in communication systems, the results of this team's research are expected to uncover new physics and engineering possibilities, contributing towards the development of communication systems that significantly affect the movement of information. The realization of the proposed devices requires a unifying theme guided by theoretical design to provide mathematical and physical understanding and guidance, experimental realization of specially designed materials such as 2D crystal heterostructures and III-Nitride semiconductors, nanofabrication of the device structures that assemble these materials in specified geometries, and finally, testing and measurement of the predicted non-reciprocal wave transport. The overarching goals are to advance the understanding of fundamental principles of non-reciprocity in novel electronic and photonic media, and to exploit these principles to realize non-reciprocal devices with superior performance. The EFRI team brings together five investigators with the precise set of skills necessary to achieve these goals.