Subwavelength electromagnetic diode: one-way response of cascading nonlinear meta-atoms

TL;DR

This paper introduces a subwavelength electromagnetic diode using cascading nonlinear meta-atoms, demonstrating one-way microwave transmission with high contrast, which could aid in miniaturizing optical nanocircuits.

Contribution

It presents a novel design of a subwavelength electromagnetic diode employing cascading nonlinear meta-atoms with experimental validation.

Findings

Achieved up to 14.7dB transmission contrast

Demonstrated one-way response at different frequencies

Operates as both forward and backward diode

Abstract

We propose a scheme for realizing subwavelength electromagnetic diode by employing cascading nonlinear meta-atoms. One-way response is demonstrated on a microwave transmission line comprising of three metallic ring resonators acting as meta-atoms and a varactor as the nonlinear medium inclusion. Experiments show that our implementation can operate simultaneously as forward diode and backward diode at different frequencies. A transmission contrast of up to 14.7dB was achieved between forward and backward transmission. Subwavelength size of our diode should be useful for miniaturization of integrated optical nanocircuits.