Abstract
Topological materials have been at the forefront of research across various fields of physics in hopes of harnessing properties such as scatter-free transport due to protection from defects and disorder. Photonic systems are ideal test beds for topological models and seek to profit from the idea of topological robustness for applications. Recent progress in 3D-printing of microscopic structures has allowed for a range of implementations of topological systems. We review recent work on topological models realized particularly in photonic crystals and waveguide arrays fabricated by 3D micro-printing. The opportunities that this technique provides are a result of its facility to tune the refractive index, compatibility with infiltration methods, and its ability to fabricate a wide range of flexible geometries.
Highlights
Topological insulators are materials that are insulating in their bulk but conduct current along their edges without back-scattering even in the presence of disorder and defects
We review recent work on topological models realized in photonic crystals and waveguide arrays fabricated by 3D micro-printing
Due to the design freedom that direct laser writing offers, it is possible to readily fabricate interesting 2D and 3D photonic structures even in curved, periodic, or more complicated geometries. This Perspective provided an overview of the topological effects that have been observed in structures fabricated by the Nanoscribe, ranging from photonic crystals to different types of waveguide structures
Summary
Topological insulators are materials that are insulating in their bulk but conduct current along their edges without back-scattering even in the presence of disorder and defects. When the Fermi energy lies in such a gap, the conduction only stems from the contribution of edge channels and is pinned to a quantized value that is independent of the amount of disorder This novel phenomenon can be understood within a branch of mathematics called topology that deals with properties of geometric objects that are preserved under continuous transformations. According to the bulk-boundary correspondence, the non-trivial topological invariant of the bulk is linked to a range of rich physical phenomena that manifest on the boundaries of a finite-sized sample. The robustness of such edge states is the most accessible and, the most important feature for applications of topology since the edge states persist even in deformed or perturbed systems, as long as the topology of the system is not changed.
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