Chiral quantum optics using a topological resonator

Abstract

Topological photonic structures exhibit chiral edge states that are robust to disorder and sharp bends. When coupled to quantum emitters, these edge states generate directional light emission that enables unprecedented control of interactions between light and matter in a nanophotonic device. While directional light emission in one-dimensional topological, as well as conventional, waveguides has been previously demonstrated, the extension of these concepts to resonator structures that enhance light-matter coupling remains challenging. Here we demonstrate chiral lightmatter interactions in a topological resonator. We employ valley-Hall topological edge states to realize a helical resonator at the interface of two topologically distinct regions. Such a helical resonator has two counter-propagating modes with opposite polarizations. We show chiral coupling of the resonator to a quantum emitter resulting in a Purcell enhancement of 3.4 due to resonant coupling. Such chiral resonators could enable designing complex nanophotonic circuits for quantum information processing, and studying novel quantum many-body dynamics.