Photonic Chern insulators made of gyromagnetic hyperbolic metamaterials

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that gyromagnetic hyperbolic metamaterials are effective photonic Chern insulators with large topological gaps, non-radiative chiral edge modes, and robust unidirectional waveguiding, offering practical advantages over existing topological photonic systems.

Contribution

It introduces gyromagnetic hyperbolic metamaterials as a new class of photonic Chern insulators with unique properties and easier fabrication compared to previous materials.

Findings

Large topological band gaps with gap Chern number of one.

Presence of non-radiative chiral edge modes enabling reflection-free waveguides.

Edge states are robust against disorder and can be controlled by magnetic field direction.

Abstract

Controlling light propagation using artificial photonic crystals and electromagnetic metamaterials is an important topic in the vibrant field of photonics. Notably, chiral edge states on the surface or at the interface of photonic Chern insulators can be used to make reflection-free waveguides. Here, by both theoretical analysis and electromagnetic simulations, we demonstrate that gyromagnetic hyperbolic metamaterials (GHM) are photonic Chern insulators with superior properties. As a novel mechanism, the simultaneous occurrence of the hyperbolic and gyromagnetic effects in these metamaterials is shown to open the large topological band gaps with gap Chern number of one. Importantly, unlike many other photonic Chern insulators, the GHM Chern insulators possess non-radiative chiral edge modes on their surfaces, and thus allow to fabricate unidirectional waveguides without cladding metals which generally incurr considerable Ohmic loss. Furthermore, the photonic edge states in the proposed Chern insulators are robust against disorder on a wide range of length scales, in strong contrast to crystalline topological insulators, and the light flow direction on the surface of the Chern insulators can be easily flipped by switching the direction of an applied magnetic field. Fascinatingly, we find that negative refraction of the topological surface wave occurs at the boundary between the GHMs with the opposite signs of gyromagnetic parameters. Finally, we show that compared with other photonic topological materials such as chiral hyperbolic materials, the present GHM Chern insulators can be much easier to fabricate.