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OPTICAL PHYSICS

Topological lattices lit at the corners

Nature Photonics volume 13, pages 660–662 (2019)Cite this article

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Higher-order topological states that are robust against certain classes of disorder and pinned to lattice corners are now observed in photonics platforms.

The discovery that some material systems acquire their properties from certain global topological features has opened a whole new world in condensed-matter physics. A central concept in topological band theory is the bulk–edge correspondence, according to which the interface between two topologically distinct lattices exhibits robust defect states1. Perhaps the simplest model that displays this character is the celebrated one-dimensional (1D) Su–Schrieffer–Heeger (SSH) Hamiltonian that can support localized, immobile 0D edge states. Another important class of topological arrangements is topological insulators — 2D networks that exhibit a bandgap in the bulk but support 1D propagating edge states.

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Fig. 1: Topologically protected edge and corner states.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics, and Materials Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

    Şahin K. Özdemir

  2. Department of Physics, and Henes Center for Quantum Phenomena, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI, USA

    Ramy El-Ganainy

Authors
  1. Şahin K. Özdemir
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  2. Ramy El-Ganainy
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Correspondence to Şahin K. Özdemir or Ramy El-Ganainy.

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Özdemir, Ş.K., El-Ganainy, R. Topological lattices lit at the corners. Nat. Photonics 13, 660–662 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-019-0523-2

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