Design of terahertz reconfigurable devices by locally controlling topological phases of square gyro-electric rod arrays

Abstract

In topological photonics, there is a class of designing approaches that usually tunes topological phase from trivial to non-trivial in a magneto-optical photonic crystal by applying an external magnetic field to break time reversal symmetry. Here we theoretically realize topological phase transition by rotating square gyro-electric rods with broken time reversal symmetry. By calculating band structures and Chern numbers, in a simple square-lattice photonic crystal, we demonstrate the topological phase transition at a specific orientation angle of the rods. Based on the dependence of topological phase on the orientation angle, we propose several terahertz devices including an isolator, circulator and splitter in a 50x50 reconfigurable rod array by locally controlling topological phases of the rods. These results may have potential applications in producing reconfigurable terahertz topological devices.