Nonreciprocal reconfigurable microwave optomechanical circuit

Understand

Devices that achieve nonreciprocal microwave transmission are ubiquitous in radar and radio-frequency communication systems, and commonly rely on magnetically biased ferrite materials.

• Such devices are also indispensable in the readout chains of superconducting quantum circuits as they protect sensitive quantum systems from the noise emitted by readout electronics.
• Since ferrite-based nonreciprocal devices are bulky, lossy, and require large magnetic fields, there has been significant interest in magnetic-field-free on-chip alternatives, such as those recently implemented using Josephson junctions.
• Here we realise reconfigurable nonreciprocal transmission between two microwave modes using purely optomechanical interactions in a superconducting electromechanical circuit.