Rotating optical microcavities with broken chiral symmetry

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that open microcavities with broken chiral symmetry exhibit highly sensitive rotation-induced emission changes, surpassing traditional Sagnac effects, with potential applications in ultrasmall optical gyroscopes.

Contribution

It introduces a novel microcavity design with broken chiral symmetry that enhances rotation sensitivity beyond conventional methods.

Findings

Rotation causes co-propagating modes to become counter-propagating.

Emission patterns change dramatically with rotation.

Sensitivity exceeds the Sagnac effect by orders of magnitude.

Abstract

We demonstrate in open microcavities with broken chiral symmetry, quasi-degenerate pairs of co-propagating modes in a non-rotating cavity evolve to counter-propagating modes with rotation. The emission patterns change dramatically by rotation, due to distinct output directions of CW and CCW waves. By tuning the degree of spatial chirality, we maximize the sensitivity of microcavity emission to rotation. The rotation-induced change of emission is orders of magnitude larger than the Sagnac effect, pointing to a promising direction for ultrasmall optical gyroscopes.