Locally Polarized Wave Propagation through Metamaterials' Crystallinity

Abstract

Wave propagation control is of fundamental interest in many areas of Physics. It can be achieved with wavelength-scaled photonic crystals, hence avoiding low frequency applications. By contrast, metamaterials are structured on a deep-subwavelength scale, and therefore usually described through homogenization, neglecting the unit-cell structuration. Here, we show with microwaves that, by considering their inherent crystallinity, we can induce wave propagation carrying angular momenta within a subwavelength-scaled collection of wires. Then, inspired by the Quantum Valley-Hall Effect in condensed matter physics, we exploit this bulk circular polarization to create modes propagating along particular interfaces. The latter also carry an edge angular momentum whose conservation during the propagation allows wave routing by design in specific directions. This experimental study not only evidences that crystalline metamaterials are a straightforward tabletop platform to emulate exciting solid-state physics phenomena at the macroscopic scale, but it also opens the door to crystalline polarized subwavelength waveguides.

arXiv comment5 figures

References in corpus (19)

• Topological Insulators
• $Z_2$ Topological Order and the Quantum Spin Hall Effect
• Valley contrasting physics in graphene: magnetic moment and topological transport
• Photonic Analogue of Two-dimensional Topological Insulators and Helical One-Way Edge Transport in Bi-Anisotropic Metamaterials
• Scheme to Achieve Silicon Topological Photonics
• Observation of topological valley transport of sound in sonic crystals
• All-Si Valley-Hall Photonic Topological Insulator
• Topologically-protected refraction of robust kink states in valley photonic crystals
• Direct Observation of Valley-polarized Topological Edge States in Designer Surface Plasmon Crystals
• Observation of Photonic Topological Valley-Hall Edge States
• Valley-protected backscattering suppression in silicon photonic graphene
• Valley-contrasting orbital angular momentum in photonic valley crystals
• Edge waves in plates with resonators: An elastic analogue of the quantum valley Hall effect
• Gate-controlled topological conducting channels in bilayer graphene
• Crystalline metamaterials for topological properties at subwavelength scales
• Resonant Metalenses for Breaking the Diffraction Barrier
• Pseudospin-valley coupled edge states in a photonic topological insulator
• Ultra small mode volume defect cavities in spatially ordered and disordered metamaterials
• Acoustic double negativity induced by position correlations within a disordered set of monopolar resonators

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Microwave Applications of Photonic Topological Insulators
• Higher-order topology in plasmonic kagome lattices
• Near- and Far-Field Excitation of Topological Plasmonic Metasurfaces
• Structure-Composition Correspondence in Crystalline Metamaterials for Acoustic Valley-Hall Effect and Unidirectional Sound Guiding