Alexander B. Khanikaev, S. Hossein Mousavi, Wang-Kong Tse, Mehdi Kargarian, Allan H. MacDonald, Gennady Shvets
Recent progress in understanding the topological properties of condensed matter has led to the discovery of time-reversal invariant topological insulators. Because of limitations imposed by nature, topologically non-trivial electronic order seems to be uncommon except in small-band-gap semiconductors with strong spin-orbit interactions. In this Article we show that artificial electromagnetic structures, known as metamaterials, provide an attractive platform for designing photonic analogues of topological insulators. We demonstrate that a judicious choice of the metamaterial parameters can create photonic phases that support a pair of helical edge states, and that these edge states enable one-way photonic transport that is robust against disorder.
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http://arxiv.org/abs/1204.5700
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