Slow light topological photonics with counter-propagating waves and its active control on a chip

Slow light topological photonics with counter-propagating waves and its active control on a chip

Blog Article

Abstract Topological slow light exhibits potential to achieve stopped light by virtue of its widely known robust and non-reciprocal behaviours.Conventional approach for achieving topological slow light often involves flat-band engineering without disentangling the underlying physical mechanism.Here, we SHIRTS unveil the presence of counter-propagating waves within valley kink states as the distinctive hallmark of the slow light topological photonic waveguides.These counter-propagating waves, supported by topological vortices along glide-symmetric interface, provide significant flexibility for controlling the slowness of light.

We tune the group velocity of light by changing the spatial separation between vortices adjacent to the glide-symmetric interface.We also dynamically control the group delay by introducing a non-Hermitian defect using photoexcitation to adjust the relative strength of the counter-propagating waves.This study introduces active slow light topological photonic device on a silicon chip, opening new horizons for topological photon transport through defects, topological light-matter interactions, BABY nonlinear topological photonics, and topological quantum photonics.