Nonreciprocal Unconventional Photon Blockade with Kerr Magnons

Abstract

Nonreciprocal devices, allowing to manipulate one-way signals, are crucial to quantum information processing and quantum networks. Here a nonlinear cavity-magnon system is proposed, consisting of a microwave cavity coupled to one or two yttrium–iron–garnet (YIG) spheres supporting magnons with Kerr nonlinearity, to investigate nonreciprocal unconventional photon blockade. The nonreciprocity originates from the direction-dependent Kerr effect, distinctly different from previous proposals with spinning cavities and dissipative couplings. For a single sphere case, nonreciprocal unconventional photon blockade can be realized by manipulating the nonreciprocal destructive interference between two active paths, via varying the Kerr coefficient from positive to negative, or vice versa. By optimizing the system parameters, the perfect and well-tuned nonreciprocal unconventional photon blockade can be predicted. For the case of two spheres with opposite Kerr effects, only reciprocal unconventional photon blockade can be observed when two cavity-magnon coupling strengths Kerr strengths are symmetric. However, when coupling strengths or Kerr strengths become asymmetric, nonreciprocal unconventional photon blockade appears. This implies that two-sphere nonlinear cavity-magnon systems can be used to switch the transition between reciprocal and nonreciprocal unconventional photon blockades. This study offers a potential platform for investigating the nonreciprocal photon blockade effect in nonlinear cavity magnonics.