Observation of quadrature-dependent unidirectional flow of light
Abstract
Unidirectional transport of light is a central capability in photonics, enabling critical functionalities such as isolation and routing. Ordinarily, this directionality depends on the mode of light, but not its phase. In this work, we experimentally demonstrate phase-dependent unidirectional transport of light for the first time. Specifically, we realize a system where conjugate quadratures of an optical field decouple and propagate in opposite directions. Our all-optical approach uses multiple pump frequencies in a high-Q nanophotonic micro-resonator to achieve Hamiltonian programming through Kerr nonlinearity. Even though we rely on optical nonlinearity, our approach is not limited to any minimal power requirement on the signal. We demonstrate the ultimate limit of this by measuring the effect of quadrature-dependent transport on vacuum fluctuations. Our approach unlocks a fundamental new capability for controlling light, and can enable previously inaccessible regimes of phase-sensitive directional amplification, sensing, and routing.
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BibTeX
@misc{sloan2026observation,
title = {{Observation of quadrature-dependent unidirectional flow of light}},
author = {Jamison Sloan and Eran Lustig and Louise Schul and Trung Kien Le and Melissa A. Guidry and Daniil M. Lukin and Shanhui Fan and Jelena Vučković},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.15116},
eprint = {2610.15116},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.15116},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Observation of quadrature-dependent unidirectional flow of light
AU - Jamison Sloan
AU - Eran Lustig
AU - Louise Schul
AU - Trung Kien Le
AU - Melissa A. Guidry
AU - Daniil M. Lukin
AU - Shanhui Fan
AU - Jelena Vučković
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/10
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.15116
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.15116
AB - Unidirectional transport of light is a central capability in photonics, enabling critical functionalities such as isolation and routing. Ordinarily, this directionality depends on the mode of light, but not its phase. In this work, we experimentally demonstrate phase-dependent unidirectional transport of light for the first time. Specifically, we realize a system where conjugate quadratures of an optical field decouple and propagate in opposite directions. Our all-optical approach uses multiple pump frequencies in a high-Q nanophotonic micro-resonator to achieve Hamiltonian programming through Kerr nonlinearity. Even though we rely on optical nonlinearity, our approach is not limited to any minimal power requirement on the signal. We demonstrate the ultimate limit of this by measuring the effect of quadrature-dependent transport on vacuum fluctuations. Our approach unlocks a fundamental new capability for controlling light, and can enable previously inaccessible regimes of phase-sensitive directional amplification, sensing, and routing.
ER -