Non-reciprocal Interferometers for Matter Waves

We propose non-reciprocal interferometers for matter waves and explore them by means of modeling. These interferometers may be implemented as asymmetric quantum rings with broken time-inversion symmetry. Our preliminary analyses lead us to predict that these devices will feature asymmetric transport properties for particles such as electrons, for which the interferometers’ ground states act as directional filters. As a function of the electron velocity, the filters seem to let electrons preferentially pass in one direction rather than in the reverse, thereby reducing the entropy of the electron systems in the contacts. Mechanisms are discussed that are candidates to prevent directional filtering if the filters are operating in thermal equilibrium with incoherent electron reservoirs.