On-Chip Multi 4-Port Optical Circulators

Abstract

We present a new geometry for on-chip optical circulators based on waveguide arrays. The optical array is engineered to mimic the Fock space representation of a noninteracting two-site Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian. By introducing a carefully tailored magneto-optic nonreciprocity to these structures, the array operates in the perfect transfer and surface Bloch oscillation modes in the forward and backward propagation directions, respectively. We show that an array made of (2N + 1) waveguide channels can function as N 4-port optical circulators with very large isolation ratios and low forward losses. Numerical analysis using beam propagation method indicates a large bandwidth of operation.