Topological Photonic Line Waveguides for High Performance Optoelectronic Devices
Abstract
We propose to develop device concepts based on the recently demonstrated Òline wavesÓ, which are the first example of electromagnetic waves that are bound to a one-dimensional object, the interface between two planar impedance sheets. These waves have three important properties that may enable significant advances for next-generation, high-performance, reconfigurable THz or optical communication and sensing systems, such as illustrated in figure 1. 1. Line waves contain a field singularity at the boundary, actually going to infinity in the mathematical limit of a thin surface. Even in practical implementations which are limited by the surface properties, they provide very high field concentration which is potentially useful for nonlinear effects such as modulators or amplifiers. 2. Line waveguides are topological photonic insulators, so they have very low reflection even from hard boundaries, which may be useful for isolators, circulators, or other devices that require breaking time-reversal symmetry. 3. They are defined only by the impedance of the surrounding surfaces, which can be tuned using a variety of techniques in graphene, semiconductor, or liquid crystal based platforms. This means that they can form field-programmable transmission lines which can be used to build complex reconfigurable photonic or THz systems. Line waveguides are also inherently broadband, with experimental prototypes exhibiting four octaves of bandwidth at microwave frequencies. They can be implemented on a variety of substrates and surfaces, which provides a wide range of options for electronic reconfiguration in a variety of regimes including optical or THz frequencies. They are open structures, so fields can interact with external electrons to create vacuum electronic devices. They can also be implemented on electronic topological insulators, and the line waves can be coupled to topological electronic edge states to create nonreciprocal devices.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Oct 15, 2018
- Source ID
- W911NF1710580
Entities
People
- Daniel F. Sievenpiper
Organizations
- Army Contracting Command
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
- University of California, San Diego