On-Chip Microwave Quantum Hall Circulator

Circulators are nonreciprocal circuit elements that are integral to technologies including radar systems, microwave communication transceivers, and the readout of quantum information devices. Their non-reciprocity arises from the interference of microwaves over the centimeter scale of the signal wavelength, in the presence of bulky magnetic media that breaks time-reversal symmetry. Here, we realize a completely passive on-chip microwave circulator with size 1/1000th the wavelength by exploiting the chiral, "slow-light" response of a two-dimensional electron gas in the quantum Hall regime. For an integrated GaAs device with 330 mu m diameter and about 1-GHz center frequency, a nonreciprocity of 25 dB is observed over a 50-MHz bandwidth. Furthermore, the nonreciprocity can be dynamically tuned by varying the voltage at the port, an aspect that may enable reconfigurable passive routing of microwave signals on chip.