Topological photonics is a rapidly emerging field of research in which geometrical and topological ideas are exploited to design and control the behavior of light. Drawing inspiration from the discovery of the quantum Hall effects and topological insulators in condensed matter, recent advances have shown how to engineer analogous effects also for photons, leading to remarkable phenomena such as the robust unidirectional propagation of light, which hold great promise for applications. Thanks to the flexibility and diversity of photonics systems, this field is also opening up new opportunities to realize exotic topological models and to probe and exploit topological effects in new ways. This article reviews experimental and theoretical developments in topological photonics across a wide range of experimental platforms, including photonic crystals, waveguides, metamaterials, cavities, optomechanics, silicon photonics, and circuit QED. A discussion of how changing the dimensionality and symmetries of photonics systems has allowed for the realization of different topological phases is offered, and progress in understanding the interplay of topology with non-Hermitian effects, such as dissipation, is reviewed. As an exciting perspective, topological photonics can be combined with optical nonlinearities, leading toward new collective phenomena and novel strongly correlated states of light, such as an analog of the fractional quantum Hall effect.

Topological Photonics

In recent years, notions drawn from non-Hermitian physics and parity–time (PT) symmetry have attracted considerable attention. In particular, the realization that the interplay between gain and loss can lead to entirely new and unexpected features has initiated an intense research effort to explore non-Hermitian systems both theoretically and experimentally. Here we review recent progress in this emerging field, and provide an outlook to future directions and developments. This Review Article outlines the exploration of the interplay between parity–time symmetry and non-Hermitian physics in optics, plasmonics and optomechanics.

Non-Hermitian physics and PT symmetry

The acoustic analogue of a topological insulator is shown: a metamaterial exhibiting one-way sound transport along its edge. The system — a graphene-like array of stainless-steel rods — is a promising new platform for exploring topological phenomena.

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Acoustic topological insulator and robust one-way sound transport

Originating from the studies of two-dimensional condensed-matter states, the concept of topological order has recently been expanded to other fields of physics and engineering, particularly optics and photonics. Topological photonic structures have already overturned some of the traditional views on wave propagation and manipulation. The application of topological concepts to guided wave propagation has enabled novel photonic devices, such as reflection-free sharply bent waveguides, robust delay lines, spin-polarized switches and non-reciprocal devices. Discrete degrees of freedom, widely used in condensed-matter physics, such as spin and valley, are now entering the realm of photonics. In this Review, we summarize the latest advances in this highly dynamic field, with special emphasis on the experimental work on two-dimensional photonic topological structures. Topological photonic structures offer unique features such as reflection-free and non-reciprocal devices. This Review highlights the experimental progress in the relatively new field of photonic topology.

Two-dimensional topological photonics

Valleytronics — exploiting a system’s pseudospin degree of freedom — is being increasingly explored in sonic crystals. Now, valley transport of sound is reported for a macroscopic triangular-lattice array of rod-like scatterers in a 2D air waveguide.

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Observation of topological valley transport of sound in sonic crystals

Photonic analogue of topological insulator was recently predicted by arranging e/μ (permittivity/permeability)-matched bianisotropic metamaterials into two-dimensional superlattices. However, the experimental observation of such photonic topological insulator is challenging as bianisotropic metamaterial is usually highly dispersive, so that the e/μ-matching condition can only be satisfied in a narrow frequency range. Here we experimentally realize a photonic topological insulator by embedding non-bianisotropic and non-resonant metacrystal into a waveguide. The cross coupling between transverse electric and transverse magnetic modes exists in metacrystal waveguide. Using this approach, the e/μ-matching condition is satisfied in a broad frequency range which facilitates experimental observation. The topologically non-trivial bandgap is confirmed by experimentally measured transmission spectra and calculated non-zero spin Chern numbers. Gapless spin-filtered edge states are demonstrated experimentally by measuring the magnitude and phase of the fields. The transport robustness of the edge states is also observed when an obstacle was introduced near the edge.

Experimental realization of photonic topological insulator in a uniaxial metacrystal waveguide

Viewing angle enlargement is essential for SLM-based 3D holographic display. An idea of constructing equivalent-curved-SLM-array (ECSA) is proposed by linear phase factor superimposition. Employing the time division and spatial tiling (TDST) techniques, an ECSA-based horizontal 4f optical system is designed and built. The horizontal viewing angle of a single SLM is increased to 3.6 times when retaining the same hologram area. An interlaced holographic display technique is developed to remove the flicker effect. Holographic augmented reality is performed using the TDST system. Floating holographic 3D image with parallax and accommodation effects is achieved. Both TDST and interlaced technique may extend to multiple SLMs system to achieve larger viewing angle.

Viewing-angle enlargement in holographic augmented reality using time division and spatial tiling

Microendoscopes are vital for disease detection and clinical diagnosis. The essential issue for microendoscopes is to achieve minimally invasive and high-resolution observations of soft tissue structures inside deep body cavities. Obviously, the microscope objective is a must with the capabilities of both high lateral resolution in a wide field of view (FOV) and miniaturization in size. Here, we propose a meta-objective, i.e., microscope objective based on cascaded metalenses. The two metalenses, with the optical diameters of 400 μm and 180 μm, respectively, are mounted on both sides of a 500-μm-thick silica film. Sub-micrometer lateral resolution reaches as high as 775 nm in such a naked meta-objective, with monochromatic aberration correction in a 125 μm full FOV and near diffraction limit imaging. Combined with a fiber bundle microscope system, the single cell contour of biological tissue (e.g., water lily leaf) can be clearly observed, compared to the indistinguishable features in other conventional lens-based fiber bundle systems, such as plano–convex and gradient refractive index (GRIN) cases.

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Meta-objective with sub-micrometer resolution for microendoscopes

Quality of holographic reconstruction image is seriously affected by undesirable messy fringes in polygon-based computer generated holography. Here, several methods have been proposed to improve the image quality, including a modified encoding method based on spatial-domain Fraunhofer diffraction and a specific LED light source. Fast Fourier transform is applied to the basic element of polygon and fringe-invisible reconstruction is achieved after introducing initial random phase. Furthermore, we find that the image with satisfactory fidelity and sharp edge can be reconstructed by either a LED with moderate coherence level or a modulator with small pixel pitch. Satisfactory image quality without obvious speckle noise is observed under the illumination of bandpass-filter-aided LED. The experimental results are consistent well with the correlation analysis on the acceptable viewing angle and the coherence length of the light source.

Image quality improvement of polygon computer generated holography.

Based on the theory of optical fiber coupling and Fabry–Perot interference, a model of extrinsic Fabry–Perot interferometric (EFPI) optical fiber sensor for measuring strain is analyzed, and the theoretical model is demonstrated. A formula of white-light interfered EFPI optical fiber strain sensor is obtained. The system of the optical fiber sensor is designed using an LED source as light source to obtain reflected spectrum. The experimental results show that it coincides well with the computational simulation of theoretical model, which means the model is accurate.

Shao-Ji Jiang

Papers

Experimental realization of photonic topological insulator in a uniaxial metacrystal waveguide

Viewing-angle enlargement in holographic augmented reality using time division and spatial tiling

Meta-objective with sub-micrometer resolution for microendoscopes

Image quality improvement of polygon computer generated holography.

Optical fiber sensor for tensile and compressive strain measurements by white-light Fabry–Perot interferometry