Photonic quantum Hall effects

TL;DR

This review discusses the development of photonic analogues of quantum Hall effects, highlighting topological phenomena in photonic systems, their theoretical foundations, experimental progress, and potential applications in classical and quantum optics.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of the evolution and current state of photonic quantum Hall effects, including theoretical generalizations and experimental realizations.

Findings

Topological phenomena observed in photonic systems

Generalization of band theory to dissipative and nonlinear media

Progress in device applications and quantum regimes

Abstract

This article reviews the development of photonic analogues of quantum Hall effects, which have given rise to broad interest in topological phenomena in photonic systems over the past decade. We cover early investigations of geometric phases, analogies between electronic systems and the spectra of periodic photonic media including photonic crystals, efforts to generalize topological band theory to open, dissipative, and nonlinear wave systems, pursuit of useful device applications, and ongoing studies of photonic Hall effects in classical nonlinear optics and the quantum regime of strong photon-photon interactions.