Realization of a three-dimensional photonic topological insulator

Confining photons in a finite volume is highly desirable in modern photonic devices, such as waveguides, lasers and cavities. Decades ago, this motivated the study and application of photonic crystals, which have a photonic bandgap that forbids light propagation in all directions1,2,3. Recently, ins...

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Main Authors: Yang, Yihao, Gao, Zhen, Xue, Haoran, Zhang, Li, He, Mengjia, Yang, Zhaoju, Singh, Ranjan, Chong, Yidong, Zhang, Baile, Chen, Hongsheng
Other Authors: School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2020
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Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/138225
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-1382252023-02-28T19:51:30Z Realization of a three-dimensional photonic topological insulator Yang, Yihao Gao, Zhen Xue, Haoran Zhang, Li He, Mengjia Yang, Zhaoju Singh, Ranjan Chong, Yidong Zhang, Baile Chen, Hongsheng School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Centre for Disruptive Photonic Technologies The Photonics Institute Science::Physics::Optics and light Metamaterials Topological Insulators Confining photons in a finite volume is highly desirable in modern photonic devices, such as waveguides, lasers and cavities. Decades ago, this motivated the study and application of photonic crystals, which have a photonic bandgap that forbids light propagation in all directions1,2,3. Recently, inspired by the discoveries of topological insulators4,5, the confinement of photons with topological protection has been demonstrated in two-dimensional (2D) photonic structures known as photonic topological insulators6,7,8, with promising applications in topological lasers9,10 and robust optical delay lines11. However, a fully three-dimensional (3D) topological photonic bandgap has not been achieved. Here we experimentally demonstrate a 3D photonic topological insulator with an extremely wide (more than 25 per cent bandwidth) 3D topological bandgap. The composite material (metallic patterns on printed circuit boards) consists of split-ring resonators (classical electromagnetic artificial atoms) with strong magneto-electric coupling and behaves like a ‘weak’ topological insulator (that is, with an even number of surface Dirac cones), or a stack of 2D quantum spin Hall insulators. Using direct field measurements, we map out both the gapped bulk band structure and the Dirac-like dispersion of the photonic surface states, and demonstrate robust photonic propagation along a non-planar surface. Our work extends the family of 3D topological insulators from fermions to bosons and paves the way for applications in topological photonic cavities, circuits and lasers in 3D geometries. 2020-04-29T05:50:11Z 2020-04-29T05:50:11Z 2019 Journal Article Yang, Y., Gao, Z., Xue, H., Zhang, L., He, M., Yang, Z., . . . Chen, H. (2019). Realization of a three-dimensional photonic topological insulator. Nature, 565(7741), 622-626. doi:10.1038/s41586-018-0829-0 0028-0836 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/138225 10.1038/s41586-018-0829-0 30626966 2-s2.0-85060931532 7741 565 622 626 en Nature 10.21979/N9/29T8VJ © 2019 Springer Nature Limited. All rights reserved. This paper was published in Nature and is made available with permission of Springer Nature Limited. application/pdf
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider NTU Library
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Science::Physics::Optics and light
Metamaterials
Topological Insulators
spellingShingle Science::Physics::Optics and light
Metamaterials
Topological Insulators
Yang, Yihao
Gao, Zhen
Xue, Haoran
Zhang, Li
He, Mengjia
Yang, Zhaoju
Singh, Ranjan
Chong, Yidong
Zhang, Baile
Chen, Hongsheng
Realization of a three-dimensional photonic topological insulator
description Confining photons in a finite volume is highly desirable in modern photonic devices, such as waveguides, lasers and cavities. Decades ago, this motivated the study and application of photonic crystals, which have a photonic bandgap that forbids light propagation in all directions1,2,3. Recently, inspired by the discoveries of topological insulators4,5, the confinement of photons with topological protection has been demonstrated in two-dimensional (2D) photonic structures known as photonic topological insulators6,7,8, with promising applications in topological lasers9,10 and robust optical delay lines11. However, a fully three-dimensional (3D) topological photonic bandgap has not been achieved. Here we experimentally demonstrate a 3D photonic topological insulator with an extremely wide (more than 25 per cent bandwidth) 3D topological bandgap. The composite material (metallic patterns on printed circuit boards) consists of split-ring resonators (classical electromagnetic artificial atoms) with strong magneto-electric coupling and behaves like a ‘weak’ topological insulator (that is, with an even number of surface Dirac cones), or a stack of 2D quantum spin Hall insulators. Using direct field measurements, we map out both the gapped bulk band structure and the Dirac-like dispersion of the photonic surface states, and demonstrate robust photonic propagation along a non-planar surface. Our work extends the family of 3D topological insulators from fermions to bosons and paves the way for applications in topological photonic cavities, circuits and lasers in 3D geometries.
author2 School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences
author_facet School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences
Yang, Yihao
Gao, Zhen
Xue, Haoran
Zhang, Li
He, Mengjia
Yang, Zhaoju
Singh, Ranjan
Chong, Yidong
Zhang, Baile
Chen, Hongsheng
format Article
author Yang, Yihao
Gao, Zhen
Xue, Haoran
Zhang, Li
He, Mengjia
Yang, Zhaoju
Singh, Ranjan
Chong, Yidong
Zhang, Baile
Chen, Hongsheng
author_sort Yang, Yihao
title Realization of a three-dimensional photonic topological insulator
title_short Realization of a three-dimensional photonic topological insulator
title_full Realization of a three-dimensional photonic topological insulator
title_fullStr Realization of a three-dimensional photonic topological insulator
title_full_unstemmed Realization of a three-dimensional photonic topological insulator
title_sort realization of a three-dimensional photonic topological insulator
publishDate 2020
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/138225
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