All-optical control of topological valley transport in graphene metasurfaces

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates an all-optical switch in graphene metasurfaces leveraging the Kerr effect to control topological valley transport, enabling dynamic modulation of photonic band structures and signal propagation.

Contribution

It introduces a method to control topological valley transport in graphene metasurfaces using the Kerr effect, enabling all-optical switching based on spectral shifts.

Findings

Threshold pump power depends on group velocity, especially in slow-light regimes.

Optical control of topological transport is feasible via refractive index tuning.

The approach enables active, topologically protected photonic devices.

Abstract

We demonstrate that the influence of Kerr effect on valley-Hall topological transport in graphene metasurfaces can be used to implement an all-optical switch. In particular, by taking advantage of the large Kerr coefficient of graphene, the index of refraction of a topologically-protected graphene metasurface can be tuned via a pump beam, which results in an optically controllable frequency shift of the photonic bands of the metasurface. This spectral variation can in turn be readily employed to control and switch the propagation of an optical signal in certain waveguide modes of the graphene metasurface. Importantly, our theoretical and computational analysis reveals that the threshold pump power needed to optically switch ON/OFF the signal is strongly dependent on the group velocity of the pump mode, especially when the device is operated in the slow-light regime. This study could open up new routes towards active photonic nanodevices whose underlying functionality stems from their topological characteristics.