Observation of photonic chiral edge states in penrose quasicrystals

Photonic chiral edge states with one-way propagation and robust topological protection are hallmark features of photonic Chern insulators. To date, photonic chiral edge states have been observed in two-dimensional (2D) periodic and amorphous gyromagnetic photonic crystals. Recent theoretical studies...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Optical materials express 2024-06, Vol.14 (6), p.1590
Main Authors: Yang, Xucheng, Wang, Ziyao, Gao, Hengjun, Yang, Linyuan, Meng, Yan, Xi, Xiang, Shum, Perry Ping, Gao, Zhen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Insulators
Long range order
Microwave photonics
Photonic band gaps
Photonic crystals
Quasicrystals
Topology
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Summary:Photonic chiral edge states with one-way propagation and robust topological protection are hallmark features of photonic Chern insulators. To date, photonic chiral edge states have been observed in two-dimensional (2D) periodic and amorphous gyromagnetic photonic crystals. Recent theoretical studies reveal that photonic chiral edge states can also exist in 2D Penrose quasicrystals with long-range order but lack translational symmetry. Here, we report the first experimental observation of photonic chiral edge states in a 2D Penrose-tiled gyromagnetic photonic quasicrystal. By using microwave measurements, we observe a complete photonic band gap in the Penrose photonic quasicrystal despite the absence of bulk Bloch bands in momentum space. Moreover, we directly observe unidirectional backscattering-immune photonic chiral edge states within the photonic bandgap of the 2D Penrose quasicrystal. These results broaden our understanding of photonic chiral edge states and provide a new platform for exploring the intriguing properties of topological photonic quasicrystals.
ISSN:2159-3930
2159-3930
DOI:10.1364/OME.524390