Photonic crystals articles from across Nature Portfolio

Strain-engineered pseudomagnetic fields realized in two-dimensional photonic crystals induce flat-band Landau levels at discrete energies as well as chiral edge states. The high density of states and high degeneracy of the flat bands has implications for both on-chip and radiating light fields.

Photonic Landau levels are demonstrated via a strain-induced pseudomagnetic field in a silicon photonic crystal slab.

One-dimensional photonic crystals provide a platform to modulate Weyl quasiparticles with properties of bound states in the continuum both dynamically (transition and rotation) and topologically (singularities in bilateral drumhead surface states).

Nonlinear optical resonators allow the coherent conversion of photons, yet fabrication tolerances limit their wavelength accuracy. Introducing periodic modulation in ring resonators is shown to allow robust and predictable selection of the converted photons.

Whether Anderson localization of light is possible in three dimensions has long been an open question. Numerical calculations have now shown that it can be done with a disordered arrangement of metal particles.

A scalar scheme has been proposed to design photonic crystals that possess bulk dispersions resembling scalar waves and surface modes that support skyrmion-like textures. This approach addresses the challenges of realizing three-dimensional topological photonic crystals, which usually have complicated dispersions and leaky surface modes inside the light cone.

Above-bandgap, nanosecond laser pulses enable the localized in situ writing of spin defects in prefabricated nanophotonic cavities. The approach preserves defect and cavity mode properties, key requirements towards cavity–emitter coupling in quantum networks.

Topological photonics has promised new devices that are resistant to backscattering, leading to lower loss, greater nonlinearity, and smaller footprint. New research shows that in reciprocal photonic crystals, backscattering is unavoidable, implying that breaking reciprocity is essential to leveraging photonic Chern insulators.