A Silicon Topological Photonic Platform for Photonic Integrated Circuits

拓扑光子绝缘体(TPI)是一种人工光子带隙材料，其光传输特性由其能带的拓扑性质决定。在TPI的许多奇异性质中，拓扑保护原理确保某些光子模受到拓扑不变量的保护，使它们不受晶格中的无序或缺陷的影响，例如由制造缺陷引起的无序或缺陷。可以潜在地利用TPI的这种和其他独特的特性来实现耐受制造变化的坚固的光子集成电路(PIC)。然而，目前对热电阻尼器的研究仍然主要集中在这些材料的基础物理上，而它们的应用仍然非常未被探索。我们的团队最近提出并演示了一种称为Floquet绝缘体的TPI，它使用了在绝缘体上硅平台上耦合的微环谐振器的2D晶格。Floquet绝缘体基于周期驱动的量子系统，可以承载由局域周期微扰引起的新型缺陷模，从而影响晶格的驱动序列。我们已经证明，这些依赖于驱动的缺陷模可以提供非传统的方式来限制和引导光通过Floquet微环晶格，方法是在晶格中适当的位置施加位相微扰和耦合微扰，而不需要像传统的光子晶体那样需要固定的物理界面。这项研究的目的是探索Floquit微环TPI和驱动相关缺陷态的物理和应用-例如Floquit缺陷模式共振和Floquit线缺陷模式-以实现制造容限的可重构硅光子器件，应用于光通信、信号处理、频率产生和量子光子学。这项研究的长期目标是为可重构和可编程的PIC开发一个通用的拓扑光子平台。该研究计划为HQP在光子学、光电子学、光通信、光子神经网络和量子光子学方面的培训提供了一个极好的平台。随着拓扑光子学领域的不断发展，这项研究为发现新的拓扑效应提供了强大的潜力，这些新的拓扑效应可能导致新的应用。这可能会在产生知识产权、发展国内高科技能力以及培训高技能劳动力方面使加拿大的光电子业受益。加拿大的总体好处是加强了该国在科学和创新方面的领先地位，这反过来又有助于吸引投资和人才进入该国的高科技产业。

Topological photonic insulators (TPIs) are artificial photonic bandgap materials whose light transport characteristics are dictated by the topological properties of their energy bands. Among the many exotic properties of TPIs is the principle of topological protection, which guarantees that certain photonic modes are protected by a topological invariant, making them immune to disorders or defects in the lattice such as those caused by fabrication imperfections. This and other unique properties of TPIs can potentially be exploited to realize robust photonic integrated circuits (PICs) that are tolerant to fabrication variations. However, current research on TPIs still largely focuses on the fundamental physics of these materials while their applications are still very much unexplored. Our group has recently proposed and demonstrated a type of TPIs called Floquet insulators using 2D lattices of coupled microring resonators on a silicon-on-insulator platform. Floquet insulators are based on periodically-driven quantum systems and can host new types of defect modes induced by local periodic perturbations to the drive sequence of the lattice. We have shown that these drive-dependent defect modes can provide unconventional ways for confining and guiding light through a Floquet microring lattice by applying phase and coupling perturbations at suitable locations in the lattice, without requiring fixed physical interfaces as in conventional photonic crystals. The objective of this research is to explore the physics and applications of Floquet microring TPIs and drive-dependent defect states - such as Floquet defect mode resonances and Floquet line defect modes - to realize fabrication-tolerant reconfigurable silicon photonic devices for applications in optical communication, signal processing, frequency generation, and quantum photonics. The long-term goal of the research is to develop a universal topological photonic platform for reconfigurable and programmable PICs. The research program provides an excellent platform for HQP training in photonics, optoelectronics, optical communication, photonic neural networks, and quantum photonics. With the field of topological photonics still evolving, the research provides strong potential for discovery of new topological effects that could lead to novel applications. This could benefit the photonics industry in Canada in terms of generation of intellectual property, development of domestic high-tech capabilities, and training of highly skilled work force. The overall benefit to Canada is to strengthen the country's position as a leader in science and innovation, which in turn helps attract investment and talents to the country's high-tech industry.