Topologically protected photonic transport in bi-anisotropic meta-waveguides

Abstract: We propose a design of two-dimensional bi-anisotropic meta-waveguide exhibiting topologically nontrivial photonic phase and robust photonic transport. The structure proposed represents a waveguide formed by a periodic array of metallic cylinders placed inside parallel metal plates and is designed to support two pairs of Dirac cones thus allowing emulation of the spin of the electrons in condensed matter systems. It is shown, that by making the meta-waveguide bi-anisotropic one can mimic the spin-orbital interaction in topological insulators and open a complete photonic topological band gap. First-principle numerical simulations demonstrate that the domain walls between two meta-waveguides with reversed bi-anisotropy support photonic edge states robust against certain classes of structural imperfections, including sharp bends and disorder.