Realization of chiral whispering gallery mode cavities enabled by photonic Chern insulators

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the creation of chiral whispering gallery modes using photonic Chern insulators, showing their robustness against defects and potential for advanced photonic applications.

Contribution

It introduces topological physics into photonic cavities to realize robust chiral WGMs, a novel approach compared to conventional achiral modes.

Findings

Chiral WGMs are robust against defects.

Numerical and experimental validation of chiral WGMs.

Enhanced understanding of light-matter interactions in topological photonic cavities.

Abstract

Recently, whispering gallery modes (WGMs) have attracted considerable attention due to their extensive applications in the development of on-chip microcavities, high-sensitivity sensors, and high-performance lasers. Conventional WGMs are achiral under the time-reversal symmetry, and show high sensitivity to defects in optical devices. Here, we introduce topological physics into photonic cavities and demonstrate the realization of chiral WGMs enabled by photonic Chern insulators. Through comprehensive numerical simulations and experimental measurements, we reveal the critical differences between chiral and achiral WGMs, highlighting the robustness of chiral WGMs even in the presence of defects within the cavities. Our research provides valuable insights into the design of robust WGM cavities and offers a novel platform for exploring light-matter interaction phenomena.