Paper by Argyropoulos, grad student published in Advanced Optics Materials

A paper, written by Christos Argyropoulos, assistant professor of electrical engineering, and graduate student Boyuan Jin, proposing a new way to create an efficient optical diode that achieves nonreciprocal transimission has recently been published in the journal Advanced Optical Materials.

The diode - featured in the paper, "Nonreciprocal Transmission in Nonlinear PT-Symmetric Metamaterials Using Epsilon-near-Zero Media Doped with Defects" - would allow light to be transmitted from one side but not pass from the other using a compact nonlinear parity-time (PT) symmetric system based on epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) materials photonically doped with gain and loss defects and separated by an ultrathin air gap.

These findings could, among many applications, be used to protect sensitive equipment from external signals.

"These elusive nonlinear nonreciprocal optical components will have very interesting applications to quantum optical computing and communications, optical isolators and to protect sources or other sensitive equipment from high-power external laser signals," Argyropoulos said. 

Considered a high-impact journal in this field, Advanced Optical Materials rarely publishes theoretical papers with fewer than three authors, Argyropoulos said.