Variable optical chirality in atomic assisted microcavity*

Abstract

The manipulating of optical waves in a microcavity is essential to developing the integrated optical devices. Generally, the two eigenmodes in a whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) microcavity possess chiral symmetry. Here we show the chiral symmetry breaking is induced by the asymmetric backscattering of counter-propagating optical waves in a whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) microcavity with a cavity-made slot filled with atomic vapor. Through tuning the dispersion relation of the atomic vapor in the cavity-made slot, the chiral modes are continuously steered. The mode frequency splitting in the transmission and reflection spectra stem from the chiral symmetry breaking of the two eigenmodes. The displacement sensitivity of the proposed system in response to the length variation of cavity-made slot exhibits a high sensitivity value of 15.22 THz/nm.