Optical isolation of circularly polarized light with a spontaneous magnetoelectric effect

The optical isolation functionality is of key importance in many photonic systems. However, a robust optical isolation is rather challenging to obtain due to the weak nonreciprocal response of conventional materials. Here, we theoretically explore novel solutions to obtain one-way propagation of circularly polarized light using materials with a spontaneous nonreciprocal response combined with chiral metamaterials. Furthermore, we investigate the opportunity of using standard anisotropic nonreciprocal materials (e.g., ferrites or bismuth iron garnet) to obtain the optical isolation of circularly polarized light.