Topological one-way fiber of second Chern number

Abstract

Optical fiber is a ubiquitous and indispensable component in communications, sensing, biomedicine and many other lightwave technologies and applications. Here we propose topological one-way fibers to remove two fundamental mechanisms that limit fiber performance: scattering and reflection. We design three-dimensional~(3D) photonic crystal fibers, inside which photons propagate only in one direction, that are completely immune to Rayleigh and Mie scatterings and significantly suppress the nonlinear Brillouin and Raman scatterings. A one-way fiber is also free from Fresnel reflection, naturally eliminating the needs for fiber isolators. Our finding is enabled by the recently discovered Weyl points in a double-gyroid~(DG) photonic crystal. By annihilating two Weyl points by supercell modulation in a magnetic DG, we obtain the photonic analogue of the 3D quantum Hall phase with a non-zero first Chern number~($C_1$). When the modulation becomes helixes, one-way fiber modes develop along the winding axis, with the number of modes determined by the spatial frequency of the helix. These single-polarization single-mode and multi-mode one-way fibers, having nearly identical group and phase velocities, are topologically-protected by the second Chern number~($C_2$) in the 4D parameter space of the 3D wavevectors plus the winding angle of the helixes. This work suggests a unique way to utilize higher-dimensional topological physics without resorting to artificial dimensions.

arXiv comment3 figures, 9 pages including supplementary information

References in corpus (33)

• Weyl and Dirac Semimetals in Three Dimensional Solids
• Topological Photonics
• Topological Field Theory of Time-Reversal Invariant Insulators
• Possible Realization of Directional Optical Waveguides in Photonic Crystals with Broken Time-Reversal Symmetry
• Experimental observation of Weyl points
• Topological Defects and Gapless Modes in Insulators and Superconductors
• Weyl points and line nodes in gapless gyroid photonic crystals
• A Four Dimensional Generalization of the Quantum Hall Effect
• Photonic topological pumping through the edges of a dynamical four-dimensional quantum Hall system
• Synthetic Dimension in Photonics
• Electron fractionalization in two-dimensional graphenelike structures
• Exploring 4D Quantum Hall Physics with a 2D Topological Charge Pump
• Helical Metal Inside a Topological Band Insulator
• Synthetic dimensions in integrated photonics: From optical isolation to 4D quantum Hall physics
• Experimental Observation of Large Chern numbers in Photonic Crystals
• Three-dimensional topological photonic crystal with a single surface Dirac cone
• Three-Dimensional All-Dielectric Photonic Topological Insulator
• Hybrid photonic-crystal fiber
• Four-Dimensional Quantum Hall Effect in a Two-Dimensional Quasicrystal
• Four-Dimensional Quantum Hall Effect with Ultracold Atoms
• Chiral anomaly, Charge Density Waves, and Axion Strings from Weyl Semimetals
• Weyl magnons in breathing pyrochlore antiferromagnets
• Plasmon Weyl Degeneracies in Magnetized Plasma
• Observation of a non-Abelian Yang Monopole: From New Chern Numbers to a Topological Transition
• Topological light-trapping on a dislocation
• Hofstadter butterfly and integer quantum Hall effect in three dimensions
• Theory of the Three Dimensional Quantum Hall Effect in Graphite
• Non-Abelian braiding of light
• Experimental Observation of Acoustic Weyl Points and Topological Surface States
• Unidirectional Transport in Electronic and Photonic Weyl Materials by Dirac Mass Engineering
• Fibers based on propagating bound states in the continuum
• Dissipationless conductance in a topological coaxial cable
• Topological defects in Floquet systems: Anomalous chiral modes and topological invariant

Cited by in corpus (37)

• Topological Photonics
• Photonic Topological Insulator in Synthetic Dimensions
• Topological photonic crystals: physics, designs and applications
• Thouless pumping and topology
• Topological Frequency Combs and Nested Temporal Solitons
• Tunable quantum interference using a topological source of indistinguishable photon pairs
• Dirac-vortex topological photonic crystal fibre
• Second Chern Number and Non-Abelian Berry Phase in Topological Superconducting Systems
• A comprehensive review on developments of synthetic dimensions
• Topological supermodes in photonic crystal fiber
• Space-group theory of photonic bands
• Realization of a fractional period adiabatic superlattice
• Ground-state quantum geometry in superconductor-quantum dot chains
• Topological photonic crystal fibers and ring resonators
• Cubic 3D Chern photonic insulators with orientable large Chern vectors
• Topological photonic crystal fibers based on second-order corner modes
• Second Chern crystals in four-dimensional synthetic translation space with inherently nontrivial topology
• Non-Abelian charged nodal links in dielectric photonic crystal
• Hybrid topological guiding mechanisms for photonic crystal fibers
• Dissipative analog of four-dimensional quantum Hall physics
• Exceptional Cones in 4D Parameter Space
• Entangled multi-component 4D quantum Hall states from photonic crystal defects
• Second-order topological modes in two-dimensional continuous media
• Superfluid Vortices in Four Spatial Dimensions
• Topological Edge Mode Tapering
• Monopole topological resonators
• Linking topological features of the Hofstadter model to optical diffraction figures
• Geometrical Rabi oscillations and Landau-Zener transitions in non-Abelian systems
• Second Euler number in four dimensional synthetic matter
• Observation of dislocation-induced topological modes in a three-dimensional acoustic topological insulator
• Tutorial: Topology, waves, and the refractive index
• Curved vortex surfaces in four-dimensional superfluids: II. Equal-frequency double rotations
• Curved vortex surfaces in four-dimensional superfluids: I. Unequal-frequency double rotations
• Classifying topological floppy modes in the continuum
• Exceptional mode topological surface laser
• Observation of Embedded Topology in a Trivial Bulk via Projective Crystal Symmetry
• Gapless hinge states from adiabatic pumping of axion coupling