Dual-polarized, mid-infrared nonreciprocal absorption
Abstract
The emission and absorption of thermal radiation are usually coupled via Kirchhoff's law or reciprocity, stated as the equality of spectral directional emissivity and absorptivity. Magneto-optical materials have recently been identified as a promising route to lifting the constraint of reciprocity, with multiple experimental demonstrations using doped InAs. However, these demonstrations have been limited to p-polarized light in the Voigt configuration, whereas thermal radiation from a blackbody is unpolarized. Therefore, to break reciprocity in both polarization channels, we design a nanophotonic, dual-polarized nonreciprocal absorber operating in the mid-infrared spectral range (11-20 unicodex03BCm), consisting of an a-Si photonic crystal slab on top of a doped InAs substrate described by an antisymmetric, nonreciprocal dielectric tensor under an applied magnetic field. The photonic crystal slab supports eigenmodes that couple to both s- and p-polarized light, resulting in absorption peaks that frequency shift in opposite directions for forward- and backward-propagating lightunicodex2014a signature of nonreciprocity in planar, subwavelength systems. We fabricate our design, then measure its room-temperature absorptance using magnetic-field-integrated absorptance spectroscopy, experimentally demonstrating nonreciprocal absorption for both polarizations. Our design is a step toward the complete control of light as heat, which could improve photonic energy conversion, thermal management, and mid-infrared optical isolation and circulation.
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BibTeX
@misc{pajovic2026dualpolarized,
title = {{Dual-polarized, mid-infrared nonreciprocal absorption}},
author = {Simo Pajovic and Yiting Zhao and Yae-Chan Lim and Ruzan Sokhoyan and Harry A. Atwater},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.00607},
eprint = {2609.00607},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.00607},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Dual-polarized, mid-infrared nonreciprocal absorption
AU - Simo Pajovic
AU - Yiting Zhao
AU - Yae-Chan Lim
AU - Ruzan Sokhoyan
AU - Harry A. Atwater
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/01
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.00607
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.00607
AB - The emission and absorption of thermal radiation are usually coupled via Kirchhoff's law or reciprocity, stated as the equality of spectral directional emissivity and absorptivity. Magneto-optical materials have recently been identified as a promising route to lifting the constraint of reciprocity, with multiple experimental demonstrations using doped InAs. However, these demonstrations have been limited to p-polarized light in the Voigt configuration, whereas thermal radiation from a blackbody is unpolarized. Therefore, to break reciprocity in both polarization channels, we design a nanophotonic, dual-polarized nonreciprocal absorber operating in the mid-infrared spectral range (11-20 unicodex03BCm), consisting of an a-Si photonic crystal slab on top of a doped InAs substrate described by an antisymmetric, nonreciprocal dielectric tensor under an applied magnetic field. The photonic crystal slab supports eigenmodes that couple to both s- and p-polarized light, resulting in absorption peaks that frequency shift in opposite directions for forward- and backward-propagating lightunicodex2014a signature of nonreciprocity in planar, subwavelength systems. We fabricate our design, then measure its room-temperature absorptance using magnetic-field-integrated absorptance spectroscopy, experimentally demonstrating nonreciprocal absorption for both polarizations. Our design is a step toward the complete control of light as heat, which could improve photonic energy conversion, thermal management, and mid-infrared optical isolation and circulation.
ER -