Visible nonreciprocal light propagation based on titanium nitride and gold in tandem

The disappearance of the permittivity of epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) materials can significantly enhance the optical nonlinear absorption, which provides a feasible way to realize broadband optoelectronic devices. Here, we used titanium nitride (TiN) film with ENZ wavelength at 540 nm as the saturable absorber (SA), and hexagonal gold nanolayer as the reverse saturable absorber (RSA), which are arranged in tandem to fabricate a broadband nonreciprocal passive photonic diode, and the maximum nonreciprocity factor of 4.8 dB was obtained experimentally in the ENZ region. Our results show the potential applications of TiN in nonlinear optical devices, and may make inroads towards the ENZ-based high-performance broadband optoelectronic devices.