Reversible nonreciprocity in photonic structures infiltrated with liquid crystals

TL;DR

This paper presents a method to achieve reversible nonreciprocal optical responses in photonic structures by using liquid crystal defect layers, enabling control over light directionality through intensity and wavelength adjustments.

Contribution

It introduces a reversible nonreciprocal effect in symmetric photonic structures using liquid crystal defects, controlled by light intensity and wavelength.

Findings

Nonreciprocal effects are reversible via wavelength changes.

Symmetric structure becomes asymmetric above a certain power threshold.

Liquid crystal defect layers enable optical reordering and control.

Abstract

We demonstrate how to achieve reversible nonreciprocal optical response in a periodic photonic structure with a pair of defects, one of them being a nonlinear liquid crystal defect layer. The twin defect layers structure is symmetric at low intensity and becomes asymmetric above a power threshold corresponding to the optical reordering of the liquid crystal. We show that nonreciprocal effects can be reversed by changing the wavelength as a consequence of the defect mode dependent light localization inside the structure.