Inverse-design of non-Hermitian potentials for on-demand asymmetric reflectivity

• Published in: Optics express 2021-05, Vol.29 (11), p.17001-17010
• Main Authors: Ahmed, Waqas Waseem, Herrero, Ramon, Botey, Muriel, Wu, Ying, Staliunas, Kestutis
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1094-4087; 1094-4087
• DOI: 10.1364/OE.421610

We propose a genetic algorithm-assisted inverse design approach to achieve ‘ on- demand ’ light transport in periodic and non-periodic planar structures containing dielectric and gain-loss layers. The optimization algorithm efficiently produces non-Hermitian potentials from any arbitrarily given real (or imaginary) permittivity distribution for the desired frequency selective and broadband asymmetric reflectivity. Indeed, we show that the asymmetric response is directly related to the area occupied by the obtained permittivity distribution in the complex plane. In particular, unidirectional light reflection can be designed in such a way that it switches from left to right (or vice versa) depending on the operating frequency. Moreover, such controllable unidirectional reflectivity is realized using a stack of dielectric layers while keeping the refractive index and gain-loss within realistic values. We believe this proposal will benefit the integrated photonics with frequency selective one-way communication.