Polaritonic states trapped by topological defects

Abstract

The miniaturization of photonic technologies calls for a deliberate integration of diverse materials to enable novel functionalities in chip-scale devices. Topological photonic systems are a promising platform to couple structured light with solid-state matter excitations and establish robust forms of 1D polaritonic transport. Here, we demonstrate a mechanism to efficiently trap mid-IR structured phonon-polaritons in topological defects of a metasurface integrated with hexagonal boron nitride (hBN). These defects, created by stitching displaced domains of a Kekulé-patterned metasurface, sustain localized polaritonic modes that originate from coupling of electromagnetic fields with hBN lattice vibrations. These 0D higher-order topological modes, comprising phononic and photonic components with chiral polarization, are imaged in real- and Fourier-space. The results reveal a singular radiation leakage profile and selective excitation through spin-polarized edge waves at heterogeneous topological interfaces. This offers impactful opportunities to control light-matter waves in their dimensional hierarchy, paving the way for topological polariton shaping, ultrathin structured light sources, and thermal management at the nanoscale.