Event

Topological insulators are solid-state materials whose transport properties are immune to defects and disorder due to underlying topological order.  Perhaps the first such phenomenon was the quantum Hall effect, wherein the Hall conductivity is quantized and hence extremely robust.  In this talk, I will present the experimental observation of the topological protection of the transport of photons (rather than electrons in the solid state) in complex dielectric structures.  I will then present the observation of optical Weyl points in the context of three-dimensional photonic crystals.  Applications of topological photonic devices include robust photonic networks and delay lines, and potentially high-power single-mode lasing.