Abstract
Photons are weak particles that do not directly couple to magnetic fields. However, it is possible to generate a photonic gauge field by breaking reciprocity such that the phase of light depends on its direction of propagation. This non-reciprocal phase indicates the presence of an effective magnetic field for the light itself. By suitable tailoring of this phase, it is possible to demonstrate quantum effects typically associated with electrons, and, as has been recently shown, non-trivial topological properties of light. This paper reviews dynamic modulation as a process for breaking the time-reversal symmetry of light and generating a synthetic gauge field, and discusses its role in topological photonics, as well as recent developments in exploring topological photonics in higher dimensions.
Highlights
Magnetic fields are fundamental to the control of charged particles
A synthetic gauge field is the tailoring of specific conditions such that some quantity of neutral particles emulates the dynamics of charged particles in a magnetic field
In 2009, Yu & Fan [38] showed that inter-band photonic transitions induced by dynamic refractive index modulation can give rise to a gauge transformation of the photon wave function, the precursor to what is known as dynamic modulation
Summary
Magnetic fields are fundamental to the control of charged particles. Photons, are uncharged spin-1 bosons and as a result, there exists no naturally occurring gauge potential through which to control light. To achieve fine control over light, one may use the physics of synthetic gauge fields. Recent techniques that bypass gyromagnetic coupling have been devised, and have opened a pathway to exploring topology in integrated photonics This transfer of edifice from topological physics into photonics [21] has created a wealth of research ideas, ranging from observations of protected edge states of light [22,23,24,25,26] to Floquet topological insulators [27,28,29,30,31,32,33].
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