Flexible Photonic Topological Insulator

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

A mechanically flexible photonic topological insulator that supports robust topological photonic states on a curved surface is experimentally demonstrated. Spatial topologies achieved by folding the flexible photonic topological insulator serve as a new freedom to manipulate the propagation of topological photonic states. This work bridges the gap between the emerging field of topological photonics and the technologically promising field of flexible photonics.
Experimental realization of a flexible photonic topological insulator that can be bent, folded, or even twisted to mold the flow of topological edge states is extremely desirable in flexible photonics applications. Here, it is shown that nontrivial spatial topologies can be implemented in a flexible photonic topological insulator as a new degree of freedom to manipulate the topological phases.