Photonic alloys, alloy-like materials combining two or more photonic crystals, are promising candidates for the development of structures that control the propagation of electromagnetic waves, also known as waveguides. Despite their potential, these materials typically reflect light back in the direction where it originated.
This phenomenon, known as light backscattering, limits the transmission of data and energy, adversely impacting the materials' performance as waveguides. Reliably reducing or preventing light backscattering in photonic alloys will thus be a key milestone towards the practical use of these materials.
Researchers at Shanxi University and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology recently fabricated a new photonic alloy with topological properties that enables the propagation of microwaves without light backscattering. This material, introduced in Physical Review Letters, could pave the way for the development of new topological photonic crystals.
"Our paper introduces a new concept: the topological photonic alloy as a nonperiodic topological material," Lei Zhang, co-author of the paper, told Phys.org. "We achieved this by combining nonmagnetized and magnetized rods in a nonperiodic 2D photonic crystal configuration. This created photonic alloys that sustain chiral edge states in the microwave regime."
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