Non-reciprocal Cavity Polariton with Atoms Strongly Coupled to Optical Cavity

Abstract: Breaking the time-reversal symmetry of light is of great importance for fundamental physics and has attracted increasing interest in the study of non-reciprocal photonic devices. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a chiral cavity QED system with multiple atoms strongly coupled to a Fabry-Perot cavity. By polarizing the internal quantum state of the atoms, the time-reversal symmetry of the atom-cavity interaction is broken. The strongly coupled atom-cavity system can be described by non-reciprocal quasiparticles, i.e., the cavity polariton. When it works in the linear regime, the inherent nonreciprocity makes the system work as a single-photon-level optical isolator. Benefiting from the collective enhancement of multiple atoms, an isolation ratio exceeding 30~dB on the single-quanta level (~0.1 photon on average) is achieved. The validity of the non-reciprocal device under zero magnetic field and the reconfigurability of the isolation direction are also experimentally demonstrated. Moreover, when the cavity polariton works in the nonlinear regime, the quantum interference between polaritons with weak anharmonicity induces non-reciprocal nonclassical statistics of cavity transmission from coherent probe light.