Saturated Gain-Induced Non-Reciprocal Transmission and Broadband On-Chip Optical Isolator

To overcome the limitation of dynamic reciprocity, a new method for designing broadband on-chip optical isolators is proposed and demonstrated based on saturated gain, which is able to support simplex and duplex operation modes. By connecting a saturated gain waveguide to an appropriate linear loss waveguide, broadband isolation is predicted and proved theoretically through saturated gain-induced non-reciprocal transmission. The proposed isolator is numerically demonstrated with an operating band of 59 nm and an isolation ratio of −20 dB at the central wavelength of 1550 nm. It is noteworthy that when the current pump changes, the isolator still works well and keeps the high isolation ratio at a different input power. The footprint of the whole device is 465 μm × 0.35 μm which satisfies the requirement of photonic integrated circuits. The proposed isolator, with the combined advantages of compact footprint, broadband, duplex operation and high isolation, can enable on-chip unidirectional transmission and complex topological routing designation.