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Photonic Molecule Approach to Multiorbital Topology

2024; American Chemical Society; Volume: 24; Issue: 15 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1021/acs.nanolett.4c00728

1530-6992

Maxim Mazanov, Diego Román-Cortés, Gabriel Cáceres-Aravena, Christofer Cid, Maxim A. Gorlach, Rodrigo A. Vicencio,

Photonic and Optical Devices

The concepts of topology provide a powerful tool to tailor the propagation and localization of the waves. While electrons have only two available spin states, engineered degeneracies of photonic modes provide novel opportunities resembling spin degrees of freedom in condensed matter. Here, we tailor such degeneracies for the array of femtosecond laser written waveguides in the optical range exploiting the idea of photonic molecules: clusters of strongly coupled waveguides. In our experiments, we observe unconventional topological modes protected by the Z3 invariant arising due to the interplay of interorbital coupling and geometric dimerization mechanism. We track multiple topological transitions in the system with the change in the lattice spacings and excitation wavelength. This strategy opens an avenue for designing novel types of photonic topological phases and states.