Unlocking First- and Second-Order Nonreciprocal Photonic Responses via Strain, Magnetic Field and DC Biases

I will discuss the strategies to engineer dynamically-tunable photonic responses of semimetals and semiconductors via symmetry-breaking external stimuli. These include optical rectification, photoluminescence and second harmonic generation enabled by strain-gradient-induced inversion symmetry breaking in 2D narrow-gap chalcogenide and thio(seleno)phosphate semiconductors and Weyl/Dirac semimetals [1,2], magnetocaloric and magnetooptical effects in magnetic materials [3,4], electric-current-induced Fizeau drag in Dirac and Weyl semimetals [5], and explorations of nonreciprocal surface plasmon polariton tunability under a combination of reduced internal symmetries and external stimuli. This research has been supported by the MIT Lincoln Laboratory under award No. ACC-777 and the Army Research Office under award No. W911NF-19-1-0279.

[1] B. Lorenzi, Y. Tsurimaki, A. Kobayashi, M. Takashiri, and S. V. Boriskina, Self-Powered Broadband Photo-Detection and Persistent Energy Generation with Junction-Free Strained Bi2Te3 Thin Films, Opt. Express 28, 27644 (2020).
[2] A. Mukherjee, D. Wlodarczyk, A. K. Somakumar, P. Sybilski, R. Siebenaller, R. Rao, M. A. Susner, A. Suchocki, and S. V. Boriskina, Synergistic Effects of Defects and Strain on Photoluminescence in van der Waals Layered Crystal AgScP2S6, under rev. in Adv. Opt. Mater. (2024).
[3] S. Pajovic and S. V. Boriskina, A Magnetocaloric Effect-Enhanced near-Field Magnetooptical Thermal Switch, Phys. Rev. Appl. 20, 014053 (2023).
[4] Gold, H., Pajovic, S., Mukherjee, A. & Boriskina, S. V. GAGA for nonreciprocal emitters: genetic algorithm gradient ascent optimization of compact magnetophotonic crystals. Nanophotonics, 13(5), 773–792 (2024).
[5] M. G. Blevins and S. V Boriskina, Plasmon Fizeau Drag in 3D Dirac and Weyl Semimetals, ACS Photonics 11, 537 (2024).