Topological edge and corner states of valley photonic crystals with zipper-like boundary conditions

Abstract

We present a stable valley photonic crystal (VPC) unit cell with C 3v symmetric quasi-ring-shaped dielectric columns and realize its topological phase transition by breaking mirror symmetry. Based on this unit cell structure, topological edge states (TESs) and topological corner states (TCSs) are realized. We obtain a new type of wave transmission mode based on photonic crystal zipper-like boundaries and apply it to a beam splitter assembled from rectangular photonic crystals (PCs). The constructed beam splitter structure is compact and possesses frequency separation functions. In addition, we construct a box-shaped triangular PC structures with zipper-like boundaries and discover phenomena of TCSs in the corners, comparing its corner states with those formed by other boundaries. Based on this, we explore the regularities of the electric field patterns of TESs and TCSs, explain the connection between the characteristic frequencies and locality of TCSs, which helps better control photons and ensures low power consumption of the system.