Over the past decades, topology has emerged as a major research direction in condensed matter physics, with the most notable achievement being the discovery of topological insulators. Applying topological considerations to photonic systems has led to the realization of a variety of photonic topological states, enabling new ways to control the flow of light. Yet, many crucial properties intrinsic to photonic systems such as optical nonlinearity and light-matter interactions have been largely overlooked in the prior studies in topological photonics. In this talk, I will present our recent work in exploring the role of optical nonlinearity and light-matter interactions in topological physics. In the first part, I will present our recent theoretical and experimental results towards observing photonic Floquet Chern insulators in driven nonlinear photonic crystals, where nontrivial band topology can be induced with designed driving fields [1-4]. In the second part, I will show strong exciton-photon interactions in 2D TMD materials can completely modify the energy dispersion, leading to topological exciton-polaritons with protected chiral edge states on the boundary [5]. Finally, I will present an outlook for the experimental realizations of topological and quantum exciton-polaritons [6] by combining 2D materials with nanophotonics.
- Nature Communications 10, 4194 (2019)
- arXiv: 2304.09385 (2023)
- Physical Review Letters 126, 113901 (2021)
- Physical Review Letters 129, 063902 (2022)
- Physical Review Letters 130, 043801 (2023)
- arXiv:2311.03750 (2023)