2024/12/05 by Chénier, Alexandre, d'Aligny, Bosco, Pellerin, Félix +4 · 2 citations
#FOS: Physical sciences #Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) #Optics (physics.optics) #Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2412.04347
The prospect of developing more efficient classical or quantum photonic devices through the suppression of backscattering is a major driving force for the field of topological photonics. However, genuine protection against backscattering in photonics requires implementing architectures with broken time-reversal which is technically challenging. Here, we make use of a frequency-encoded synthetic dimension scheme in an optical fibre loop platform to experimentally realise a photonic Chern insulator inspired from the Haldane model where time-reversal is explicitly broken through temporal modulation. The bands' topology is assessed by reconstructing the Bloch states' geometry across the Brillouin zone. We further highlight its consequences by measuring a driven-dissipative analogue of the quantized transverse Hall conductivity. Our results thus open the door to harnessing topologically protected unidirectional transport of light in frequency-multiplexed photonic systems.