Abstract

Photonic waveguide arrays provide a simple and versatile platform for simulating conventional topological systems. Here, we investigate a novel one-dimensional (1D) topological band structure, a dimer chain, consisting of silicon waveguides with alternating self-coupling and inter-coupling. Coupled mode theory is used to study topological features of such a model. It is found that topological invariants of our proposed model are described by the global Berry phase instead of the Berry phase of the upper or lower energy band, which is commonly used in the 1D topological models such as the Su–Schrieffer–Heeger model. Next, we design an array configuration composed of two dimer patterns with different global Berry phases to realize the topologically protected waveguiding. The topologically protected propagation feature is simulated based on the finite-difference time-domain method and then observed in the experiment. Our results provide an in-depth understanding of the dynamics of the topological defect state in a 1D silicon waveguide array, and may provide different routes for on-chip lightwave shaping and routing.

© 2020 Chinese Laser Press

Observation of topological Anderson phase in laser-written quasi-periodic waveguide arrays

Weizhao Cheng, Weijie Liu, Quancheng Liu, and Feng Chen
Opt. Lett. 47(11) 2883-2886 (2022)

Observation of the topological phase transition from the spatial correlation of a biphoton in a one-dimensional topological photonic waveguide array

Ying Yang and Dawei Cao
Opt. Express 30(21) 37899-37909 (2022)

Flexibly designed spoof surface plasmon waveguide array for topological zero-mode realization

Qingqing Cheng, Tao Chen, Dong Yu, Yujiao Liao, Jingya Xie, Xiaofei Zang, Xiaopeng Shen, and Yiming Pan
Opt. Express 26(24) 31636-31647 (2018)

Boosting topological zero modes using elastomer waveguide arrays

Angelina Frank, Daniel Leykam, Daria A. Smirnova, Dimitris G. Angelakis, and Alexander Ling
Opt. Lett. 47(18) 4620-4623 (2022)

Topological states in the super-SSH model

Yiqi Zhang, Boquan Ren, Yongdong Li, and Fangwei Ye
Opt. Express 29(26) 42827-42836 (2021)