Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Optical physics

Reciprocal topological photonic crystals allow backscattering

Nature Photonics volume 17, pages 383–384 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

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.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Scanning electron micrographs of the valley Hall photonic crystal.

adapted from ref. 9 under a Creative Commons licence CC BY 4.0

References

  1. Haldane, F. D. M. Phys. Rev. Lett. 61, 2015–2018 (1988).

    Article  ADS  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  2. Haldane, F. D. M. & Raghu, S. Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 013904 (2008).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Wang, Z., Chong, Y., Joannopoulos, J. D. & Soljacic, M. Nature 461, 772–775 (2009).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. Chang, C.-Z. et al. Science 340, 167–170 (2013).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  5. von Klitzing, K. Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 200001 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Hafezi, M., Demler, E. A., Lukin, M. D. & Taylor, J. M. Nat. Phys. 7, 907–912 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Bandres, M. A. et al. Science 359, eaar4005 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Guglielmon, J. & Rechtsman, M. C. Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 153904 (2019).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. Rosiek, C. A. et al. Nat. Photon. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-023-01189-x (2023).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Mak, K. F., McGill, K. L., Park, J. & McEuen, P. L. Science 344, 1489–1492 (2014).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  11. Cheng, X. et al. Nat. Mater. 15, 542–548 (2016).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  12. Rechtsman, M. C. et al. Nature 496, 196–200 (2013).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  13. Hafezi, M., Mittal, S., Fan, J., Migdall, A. & Taylor, J. M. Nat. Photon. 7, 1001–1005 (2013).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  14. Bahari, B. et al. Science 358, 636–640 (2017).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  15. He, L. et al. Nat. Commun. 10, 4194 (2019).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Physics Department, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

    Mikael C. Rechtsman

Authors
  1. Mikael C. Rechtsman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mikael C. Rechtsman.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Rechtsman, M.C. Reciprocal topological photonic crystals allow backscattering. Nat. Photon. 17, 383–384 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-023-01199-9

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-023-01199-9

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing