Topological metamaterials based on polariton rings

Abstract

Chern insulator phase is shown to emerge in two dimensional arrays of polariton rings where timereversal symmetry is broken due to the application of out-of-plane magnetic field. The interplay of Zeeman splitting with the photonic analog of spin-orbit coupling (TE-TM splitting) inherently present in this system leads to the appearance of synthetic U(1) gauge field and opening of topologically nontrivial spectral gaps. This results in the onset of topologically protected chiral edge states similar to those forming in quantum Hall effect. In one dimensional zigzag arrays of polariton rings edge states similar to those appearing in Su-SchriefferHeeger (SSH) model are formed.

Dynamics of spin polarization in tilted polariton rings

“…Ring shaped polariton waveguides is attracting a great deal of attention for exploring various topological effects [22][23][24][25] due to the TE-TM splitting in these structures. We present in this direction the first experiments on etched polariton rings.…”

“…For the sake of simplicity we introduced a dimensionless parameter B corresponding to the TE-TM splitting as B = 2βm eff /~2 and a dimensionless parameter Δ = (πR/a) 2 corresponding to the LT-splitting, stemming from the confinement in the radial direction. In the case where the ring is infinitely thin, the model reduces to the one described in [23].…”

Optically induced topological spin-valley Hall effect for exciton polaritons

“…[23]. Several other theoretical proposals for realizing topological polaritons followed related to the same scheme [45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54], by using the polarization splitting inside the elliptical micropil-lars [55], by using vortices in staggered honeycomb lattices [56], and by Floquet engineering [57]. Apart from the linear effects, the nonlinearity of polaritons alone can induce topological phases, such as the appearance of the Haldane model [58,59] and antichiral edge states [60].…”

Resonant excitation of acoustic waves in one-dimensional exciton-polariton systems

“…In the present paper we consider further the interac-tion between 1D condensate of exciton-polaritons and a coherent phonon field, possessing the same dimensionality. From an experimental point of view, this setup can be realized as a ring-shaped polariton microcavity [17] on a substrate that prevents leakage of the generated acoustic waves from the microcavity to the substrate. The radius of the microcavity should be big enough to neglect the discreteness of the spectrum in the ring.…”