Guiding electromagnetic waves around sharp corners: topologically protected photonic transport in meta-waveguides (Presentation Recording)

Abstract

Science thrives on analogies, and a considerable number of inventions and discoveries have been made by pursuing an unexpected connection to a very different field of inquiry. For example, photonic crystals have been referred to as “semiconductors of light” because of the far-reaching analogies between electron propagation in a crystal lattice and light propagation in a periodically modulated photonic environment. However, two aspects of electron behavior, its spin and helicity, escaped emulation by photonic systems until recent invention of photonic topological insulators (PTIs). The impetus for these developments in photonics came from the discovery of topologically nontrivial phases in condensed matter physics enabling edge states immune to scattering. The realization of topologically protected transport in photonics would circumvent a fundamental limitation imposed by the wave equation: inability of reflections-free light propagation along sharply bent pathway. Topologically protected electromagnetic states could be used for transporting photons without any scattering, potentially underpinning new revolutionary concepts in applied science and engineering. I will demonstrate that a PTI can be constructed by applying three types of perturbations: (a) finite bianisotropy, (b) gyromagnetic inclusion breaking the time-reversal (T) symmetry, and (c) asymmetric rods breaking the parity (P) symmetry. We will experimentally demonstrate (i) the existence of the full topological bandgap in a bianisotropic, and (ii) the reflectionless nature of wave propagation along the interface between two PTIs with opposite signs of the bianisotropy.