Topological nanophotonics for photoluminescence control

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how topological nanophotonics can be used to achieve disorder-robust control of photoluminescence polarization in rare-earth-doped nanocrystals, leveraging topological edge states in dielectric resonator arrays.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach using topological arrays of nanoparticles to control photoluminescence polarization with robustness against disorder.

Findings

Polarized emission governed by topological edge states.

Verification of topological origin through trivial and nontrivial array comparison.

Disorder-immune polarization control demonstrated in nanocrystal emission.

Abstract

Rare-earth doped nanocrystals are emerging light sources used for many applications in nanotechnology enabled by human ability to control their various optical properties with chemistry and material science. However, one important optical problem -- polarisation of photoluminescence -- remains largely out of control by chemistry methods. Control over photoluminescence polarisation can be gained via coupling of emitters to resonant nanostructures such as optical antennas and metasurfaces. However, the resulting polarization is typically sensitive to position disorder of emitters, which is difficult to mitigate. Recently, new classes of disorder-immune optical systems have been explored within the framework of topological photonics. Here we explore disorder-robust topological arrays of Mie-resonant nanoparticles for polarisation control of photoluminescence of nanocrystals. We demonstrate polarized emission from rare-earth-doped nanocrystals governed by photonic topological edge states supported by zigzag arrays of dielectric resonators. We verify the topological origin of polarised photoluminescence by comparing emission from nanoparticles coupled to topologically trivial and nontrivial arrays of nanoresonators.