Unidirectional edge states in topological honeycomb-lattice membrane photonic crystals

Photonic analogs of electronic systems with topologically non-trivial behavior such as unidirectional scatter-free propagation has tremendous potential for transforming photonic systems. Like in electronics topological behavior can be observed in photonics for systems either preserving time-reversal (TR) symmetry or explicitly breaking it. TR symmetry breaking requires magneto-optic photonics crystals (PC) or generation of synthetic gauge fields. For on-chip photonics that operate at optical frequencies both are quite challenging because of poor magneto-optic response of materials or substantial nanofabrication challenges in generating synthetic gauge fields. A recent work by Ma, et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett.114, 223901 (2015)] based on preserving pseudo TR symmetry offers a promising design scheme for observing unidirectional edge states in a modified honeycomb photonic crystal (PC) lattice of circular rods that offers encouraging alternatives. Here we propose through bandstructure calculations the inverse system of modified honeycomb PC of circular holes in a dielectric membrane which is more attractive from fabrication standpoint for on-chip applications. We observe trivial and non-trivial bandgaps as well as unidirectional edge states of opposite helicity propagating in opposite directions at the interface of a trivial and non-trivial PC structures. Around 1550nm operating wavelength ~55nm of bandwidth is possible for practicable values of design parameters (lattice constant, hole radii, membrane thickness, scaling factor etc.) and robust to reasonable variations in those parameters.