Project Description

Over the past forty years, physicists understood that topology and quantal phases play a major and intriguing role in condensed matter systems. These ideas lead to the understanding of the Integer and Fractional Quantum Hall Effects, development of spintronics, birth of topological insulator materials, topological quantum computing, and emergence of new quasiparticles such as Majorana Fermions and other non-Abelions.

While most of these concepts originate from condensed matter physics, it was optics and photonics that brought some of the most striking applications of these phenomena to practical devices and systems. In particular, the use of the concept of a topological insulator offered the solution of a long-standing problem of forming a powerful single-mode laser from multiple low-power emitters, where the topological laser has inherited robustness against imperfections due to the topological protection. 

The research program will focus on the study of topological phenomena in optical and electronic systems, with the ultimate goal of using this physics in practical optoelectronic devices. The specific objectives of the proposed research involve the study of topological phenomena in optics and electronics in a variety of systems, ranging from nanostructures and Bose-Einstein condensates to metamaterials and hybrid superconductor-semiconductor structures.

Start Date

2020

Postdoc Qualifications 

Background in theoretical condensed matter physics and/or optics.

Co-advisors 

Evgenii Narimanov
evgenii@purdue.edu
ECE

Yuli Lyanda-Geller
yuli@purdue.edu
Physics

References 

J. Liang, G.E. Simion, Y.B. Lyanda-Geller, "Parafermions, induced edge states and domain walls in the fractional quantum Hall effect spin transitions," accepted to Phys. Rev. B; arXiv:1904.04719 .

Emroz Khan and Evgenii E. Narimanov, "Spinning radiation from a topological insulator", Phys. Rev. B 100, 081408(R) (2019).

Miguel A. Bandres, Steffen Wittek, Gal Harari, Midya Parto, Jinhan Ren, Mordechai Segev, Demetrios N. Christodoulides, Mercedeh Khajavikhan, "Topological insulator laser: Experiment," Science 359 (6381), 4005 (2018).