Magnetic Faraday rotation in lossy photonic structures

Abstract

Magnetic Faraday rotation is widely used in optics and MW. In uniform magneto-optical materials, this effect is very weak. One way to enhance it is to incorporate the magnetic material into a high-Q optical resonator. One problem with magneto-optical resonators is that along with Faraday rotation, the absorption and linear birefringence can also increase dramatically, compromising the device performance. Another problem is strong ellipticity of the output light. We discuss how the above problems can be addressed in the cases of optical microcavities and a slow wave resonators. We show that a slow wave resonator has a fundamental advantage when it comes to Faraday rotation enhancement in lossy magnetic materials.