H2020Индивидуална стипендия2018–2020

ToPol · Topological Polaritonics

„Хоризонт 2020“ — Действия „Мария Склодовска-Кюри“

Период: 2018-04-01 → 2020-05-31
Финансиране от ЕС: 185 076 €
Участници: 1
Схема: MSCA-IF-EF-ST

Линиите свързват координатора с партньорите.

Накратко на български

Екситон-поляритоните в полупроводникови микрорезонатори се използват за изучаване на връзката между топологичната физика и нелинейната оптика. Това помага за създаване на фотонни устройства, като диоди и превключватели, които са устойчиви на дефекти и външни смущения.

Този кратък обзор е генериран от изкуствен интелект

Кратко обяснение, генерирано от езиков модел по текста на CORDIS. Оригиналът е по-долу.

Резултати накратко

Topological Polaritonics

The study of topological phases of matter in artificial platforms, notably photonic crystals, has attracted much attention over the last years as it allows exploring topological physics often beyond what is physically reachable in the solid-state. Indeed, this exploration has led to the development of new technological functionalities with robust properties, like protected lasers immune to disorder or fabrication defects. However, so far the field of topological photonics (i.e. emulating topological phases of matter in photonic systems) has remained mainly limited to the single-particle regimes, i.e. in systems where the nonlinearity remains very weak. The aim of this action is specifically to address this issue, and to explore and study the interplay between topological physics and nonlinear optics. This is highly relevant both at the fundamental and technological levels. At the more technological level, this could allow engineering new photonic active devices (e.g. switches, diodes, sources...) that are immune to the presence of local defects and environmental fulctuations. At the more fundamental point of view, it will pave the way to the exploration of new physical objects that are inherently nonlinear, like topological solitons or vortices. The implementation of such novel objects is crucial to better understand topological phases of matter in the presence of inter-particle interactions. The objective of this action is precisely to study this question using exciton-polaritons confined in arrays of semiconductor microresonators. Thanks to their excitonic part, these hybrid light-matter quasiparticles exhibit strong Kerr-like nonlinearities. More specifically the objectives of this project are divided in three parts: 1- implementing topological phases of matter that break time-reversal symmetry in polaritonic arrays, 2- implementing nonlinear effects in simpler polaritonic lattices that do not break time-reversal symmetry, and 3- combined both to explore nonlinear topological physics in systems that break time-reversal.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз

Цел на проекта

Due to their great versatility, photonic systems have been proven to be very powerful platforms for exploring topological physics and for engineering optical devices that are robust against fabrication defects and local perturbations. Right now, the most important challenges that faces this emerging field of topological photonics are (i) to break time-reversal symmetry (TRS) at optical frequencies, and (ii) to implement nonlinearities in topological modes. On the one hand, breaking TRS would allow implementing compact optical isolators and unidirectional waveguides in the edge states of topological lattices; on the other hand, nonlinearities would give rise to exotic effects emerging from the interplay of interactions and topology (e.g. fractional quantum Hall effect, topological solitons, multistability) and allow engineering active optical devices with topological robustness (e.g. topological lasers, diodes, switches...). Based on a multi-disciplinary approach, the objective of this proposal is to tackle both challenges using lattices of cavity polaritons, a half-light/half-exciton quasiparticle well-known for its nonlinear properties. In the first part of this project, we will take profit of the strong expertise of the host group in terms of microcavity etching to investigate nonlinear effects (polariton lasing, soliton formation and instabilities) emerging in the topological edge states of honeycomb polariton lattices. To do this, we will use a lattice with relevant edge terminations and appropriate exciton-photon detuning, and optically pump high polariton densities in the topologicale edge modes. Then, we will demonstrate TRS-breaking, either by using the magnetic moment of polaritons in an external magnetic field or by optically polarizing the exciton reservoir. Finally, using the approach yielding the strongest Zeeman splitting / polariton linewidth ratio, we will realize the first topological insulator with broken TRS at optical frequencies.

Оригинален текст от CORDIS (на английски).

Участници

CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS · ParisКоординаторФранция