Phys.org  May 17, 2023 Despite recent demonstrations of various topological photonic phases, the full potential offered by Dirac photonic systems, specifically their ability to emulate the spin degree of freedom—referred to as pseudo-spin—beyond topological boundary modes has remained underexplored. An international team of researcher (USA – City College of New York, AFRL (Eglin AFB), Australia) showed an example of relativistic-like trapping in photonic system that realizes Dirac-like dispersion with spatially inhomogeneous mass term. The modes trapped by such cavities, their energy levels, and corresponding orbitals were characterized through optical imaging in real and momentum space. The fabricated cavities hosted a […]