Aspects of Topological Photonics (Prof. M. Rechtsman)
- Date: May 17, 2016
- Time: 02:30 PM - 04:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
- Speaker: Prof. Dr. Mikael Rechtsman, Penn State University, USA
- Room: Herbert Walther Lecture Hall
- Host: MPQ
Even disorder cannot change these invariants, making the materials’ properties inherently robust. But this topological protection is not unique to electrons or even quantum mechanics – in fact, it is a general wave phenomenon that can be applied in a variety of physical systems. Here, I will present our realization of a photonic topological insulator. Using this, I will show that phenomena that could never be observed in the solid-state can be observed using light: examples include a two-dimensional topological quasicrystal and the `topological Anderson insulator phase’.
Furthermore, I will show that the energies
of photonic defect modes can be protected in two dimensions using states
akin to Majorana modes. The goal of this new field of ‘topological
photonics’ is to show that topology can be used to protect fragile
states of light in a range of optical devices.