Giant bias-free nonreciprocity for unpolarized light via synthetic motion (2510.14069v1)

Abstract: Reciprocity breaking at optical frequencies typically relies on bulky magnets, dynamic modulation, or nonlinearities, all of which hinder chip-scale integration and the handling of unpolarised light. We introduce a fully passive, subwavelength metasurface that achieves polarisation-insensitive one-way transparency by combining self-magnetised ferrite nanodisks in a vortex state with symmetry-protected quasi-bound states in the continuum. The metasurface exhibits a pure synthetic moving-medium response at optical frequencies, yielding giant nonreciprocal directional dichroism. We report near-unity values for both the transmittance contrast and the emissivity-to-absorptivity ratio with experimentally widely available ferrite materials, all under unpolarised illumination and without external bias. Using temporal coupled-mode theory, we identify the design conditions necessary to maximise directional dichroism: critical coupling, Huygens-type resonance overlap, and strong inter-mode coupling. Furthermore, we propose a deterministic, stamp-assisted protocol for imprinting arbitrary, uniform, or patterned vortex configurations across large arrays of nanodisk meta-atoms, enabling scalable fabrication. This work establishes a practical route toward compact nonreciprocal photonics with applications in photonic gyrators, nonreciprocal wavefront engineering, and nonreciprocal solar cell technologies.