NONRECIPROCAL MULTIFERROIC SUPERLATTICES WITH BROKEN PARITY SYMMETRY

Abstract

Multiferroic materials are characterized by the coexistence of ferroelectric and ferromagnetic (or antiferromagnetic) orders, the coupling to lattice vibration can be invoked either through piezoelectric or piezomagnetic effects. In this paper, the polaritonic band structures of multiferroic superlattices composed of oppositely polarized domains are investigated using the generalized transfer matrix method. For the primitive cell with broken parity symmetry, the polaritonic band structure is asymmetrical with respect to the forward and backward propagation directions (nonreciprocality). In particular, the band extreme points move away from the Brillouin zone center. This asymmetry in band-gap positions and widths can be used to design compact one-way optical isolators, while the extremely slow light velocities near the asymmetrical upper edges of lower bands includes the essential ingredients for designing slow light devices.