Related papers: Liquid-crystal-based topological photonics
Nanoporous media exhibit structures significantly smaller than the wavelengths of visible light and can thus act as photonic metamaterials. Their optical functionality is not determined by the properties of the base materials, but rather by…
We experimentally demonstrate topological slow light waveguides in valley photonic crystals (VPhCs). We employed a bearded interface formed between two topologically-distinct VPhCs patterned in an air-bridged silicon slab. The interface…
A topologically protected ring-resonator formed in valley photonic crystals is proposed and fabricated on a silicon slab. The unidirectional transmission and robustness against structure defects of its resonant modes are illustrated.…
Structured optical materials provide a promising platform for photonic quantum information processing in free space. Beam splitters, a fundamental building block of photonic circuits, have recently been demonstrated in free space using…
Photonic crystals are extremely sensitive to structural disorder even to the point of completely losing their functionalities. While on one side this can be detrimental for applications in traditional optical devices, on the other side, it…
Topological insulators represent unique phases of matter with insulating bulk and conducting edge or surface states, immune to small perturbations such as backscattering due to disorder. This stems from their peculiar band structure, which…
Photonic crystals have great potential for use as laser-driven accelerator structures. A photonic crystal is a dielectric structure arranged in a periodic geometry. Like a crystalline solid with its electronic band structure, the modes of a…
Colloids are abundant in nature, science and technology, with examples ranging from milk to quantum dots and the "colloidal atom" paradigm. Similarly, liquid crystal ordering is important in contexts ranging from biological membranes to…
Topological concepts have been at the forefront of materials research in recent years, driving a revolution in our understanding of the response of quantum materials and enabling new ways to manipulate light and sound in topological…
The ability to actively tune the properties of a nanocavity is crucial for future applications in photonics and quantum information. Two important man-made classes of materials have emerged to mold the flow of electromagnetic waves.…
Artificially engineered geometric phase optical elements may have tunable photonic functionalities owing to sensitivity to external fields, as is the case for liquid crystals based devices. However, a liquid crystal technology combining…
Strong light-matter interactions in 2D materials have garnered significant interest for their potential in nonlinear optics and quantum photonics. Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), with their robust excitonic responses, serve as…
We analyze the robustness of corner modes in topological photonic crystals, taking a $C_6$-symmetric breathing honeycomb photonic crystal as an example. First, we employ topological quantum chemistry and Wilson loop calculations to…
The physics of light-matter interactions is strongly constrained by both the small value of the fine-structure constant and the small size of the atom. Overcoming these limitations is a long-standing challenge. Recent theoretical and…
Our understanding of topological insulators is based on an underlying crystalline lattice where the local electronic degrees of freedom at different sites hybridize with each other in ways that produce nontrivial band topology, and the…
The deterministic control of light-matter interactions at the level of single particles and on subwavelength scales is central to quantum optics and hybrid integrated quantum technologies. However, combining cold atom research with…
Motile liquid crystal (LC) colloids show peculiar behavior due to the high sensitivity to external stimuli driven by the LC elastic and surface effects. However, few studies focus on harnessing the LC phase transitions to propel colloidal…
Chromonic liquid crystals (CLCs) are lyotropic materials which are attracting growing interest for their adaptability to living systems. A considerable body of works has been devoted to exploring their properties and applications. In this…
We report the first experimental study upon the optical trapping and manipulation of topological insulator (TI) particles. By virtue of the unique TI properties, which have a conducting surface and an insulating bulk, the particles present…
Crystalline symmetries give rise to topological invariants that can distinguish quantum phases of matter. Understanding these in strongly interacting systems is an ongoing research direction requiring non-perturbative methods. Recent…