Nonreciprocal unconventional photon blockade in a spinning optomechanical system

Abstract

We propose how to achieve quantum nonreciprocity via unconventional photon blockade (UPB) in a compound device consisting of an optical harmonic resonator and a spinning optomechanical resonator. We show that, even with an extremely weak single-photon nonlinearity, nonreciprocal UPB can emerge in this system, i.e., strong photon antibunching can emerge only by driving the device from one side, but not from the other side. This nonreciprocity results from the Fizeau drag, leading to different splitting of the resonance frequencies for the counter-circulating modes. Such nonreciprocal quantum UPB devices can be particularly useful in achieving e.g., few-photon diodes or circulators, and quantum chiral photonic engineering.