Honeycomb lattice plays an extremely important role in the course of development of topology physics [1]. Recently, we propose an all-dielectric topological photonic crystal derived from honeycomb structure. We identify a pseudo spin degree of freedom in electromagnetic modes hosted by honeycomb lattice, which can be explored for establishing topological EM states with time-reversal symmetry [2]. We demonstrate theoretically the nontrivial topology by showing photonic band inversion, and counter-propagating edge EM wave. I will show the recent experimental confirmation of this idea with microwaves [3]. Without requiring gyromagnetic, bi-anisotropic or piezo-magnetic materials, this topological photonic crystal can be fabricated easily and potentially is compatible to electronics. Finally I will discuss future perspective [4,5].
Reference:
[1] H.-M. Weng, R. Yu, X. Hu, X. Dai and Z. Fang, Adv. Phys. vol. 64, 227 (2015)
[2] L.-H. Wu and X. Hu: Phys. Rev. Lett. vol. 114, 223901 (2015)
[3] Y.-T. Yang, J.-H. Jiang, X. Hu and Z.-H. Hang: arXiv.1610.07780
[4] L.-H. Wu and X. Hu: Sci. Rep. vol. 6, 24347 (2016)
[5] T. Kariyado and X. Hu: arXiv.1607.08706
