Phys.org November 19, 2018
An international team of researchers (USA – Duke University, SUNY Buffalo, Canada) combined the properties of a planar silicon photonic crystal and the concept of topological protection to design, fabricate and characterize an optical topological insulator. They showed that the transmittances are the same for light propagation along a straight topological interface and one with four sharp turns. The waveguide works very well even if there are minor defects in the photonic crystalline structure. It has a large operating bandwidth, compatible with modern semiconductor fabrication technologies, and works at wavelengths currently used in telecommunications…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLEÂ Â
The central part of the new photonic crystal topological insulator waveguide, with the path of a photon’s path highlighted in green. Credit: Duke University