Breaking Lorentz Reciprocity with Frequency Conversion and Delay

We introduce a method for breaking Lorentz reciprocity based upon the noncommutation of frequency conversion and delay. The method requires no magnetic materials or resonant physics, allowing for the design of scalable and broadband nonreciprocal circuits. With this approach, two types of gyrators-universal building blocks for linear, nonreciprocal circuits-are constructed. Using one of these gyrators, we create a circulator with > 15 dB of isolation across the 5-9 GHz band. Our designs may be readily extended to any platform with suitable frequency conversion elements, including semiconducting devices for telecommunication or an on-chip superconducting implementation for quantum information processing.