Photonic topological insulators
Alexander B. Khanikaev,S. Hossein Mousavi,Wang-Kong Tse,Mehdi Kargarian,Allan H. MacDonald,Gennady Shvets +5 more
TLDR
It is shown that metacrystals-superlattices of metamaterials with judiciously designed properties-provide a platform for designing topologically non-trivial photonic states, similar to those identified for condensed-matter topological insulators.Abstract:
Recent progress in understanding the topological properties of condensed matter has led to the discovery of time-reversal-invariant topological insulators. A remarkable and useful property of these materials is that they support unidirectional spin-polarized propagation at their surfaces. Unfortunately topological insulators are rare among solid-state materials. Using suitably designed electromagnetic media (metamaterials) we theoretically demonstrate a photonic analogue of a topological insulator. We show that metacrystals-superlattices of metamaterials with judiciously designed properties-provide a platform for designing topologically non-trivial photonic states, similar to those that have been identified for condensed-matter topological insulators. The interfaces of the metacrystals support helical edge states that exhibit spin-polarized one-way propagation of photons, robust against disorder. Our results demonstrate the possibility of attaining one-way photon transport without application of external magnetic fields or breaking of time-reversal symmetry. Such spin-polarized one-way transport enables exotic spin-cloaked photon sources that do not obscure each other.read more
Citations
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Weyl and Dirac semimetals in three-dimensional solids
TL;DR: Weyl and Dirac semimetals as discussed by the authors are three-dimensional phases of matter with gapless electronic excitations that are protected by topology and symmetry, and they have generated much recent interest.
Journal ArticleDOI
Topological Photonics
Tomoki Ozawa,Hannah M. Price,Alberto Amo,Nathan Goldman,Mohammad Hafezi,Ling Lu,Mikael C. Rechtsman,David Schuster,Jonathan Simon,Oded Zilberberg,Iacopo Carusotto +10 more
TL;DR: 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 as mentioned in this paper, which holds great promise for applications.
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Photonic Floquet topological insulators
Mikael C. Rechtsman,Julia M. Zeuner,Yonatan Plotnik,Yaakov Lumer,Daniel K. Podolsky,Felix Dreisow,Stefan Nolte,Mordechai Segev,Alexander Szameit +8 more
TL;DR: This work proposes and experimentally demonstrate a photonic topological insulator free of external fields and with scatter-free edge transport—a photonic lattice exhibiting topologically protected transport of visible light on the lattice edges.
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Non-Hermitian physics and PT symmetry
Ramy El-Ganainy,Konstantinos G. Makris,Mercedeh Khajavikhan,Ziad H. Musslimani,Stefan Rotter,Demetrios N. Christodoulides +5 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the interplay between parity-time symmetry and non-Hermitian physics in optics, plasmonics and optomechanics has been explored both theoretically and experimentally.
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Quantum fluids of light
Iacopo Carusotto,Cristiano Ciuti +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, a review of recent theoretical and experimental advances in the fundamental understanding and active control of quantum fluids of light in nonlinear optical systems is presented, from the superfluid flow around a defect at low speeds to the appearance of a Mach-Cherenkov cone in a supersonic flow, to the hydrodynamic formation of topological excitations such as quantized vortices and dark solitons at the surface of large impenetrable obstacles.
References
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