Dynamically reconfigurable topological routing in nonlinear photonic systems

Stephan Wong; Simon Betzold; Sven Höfling; Alexander Cerjan

doi:10.1038/s41377-025-02108-1

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Dynamically reconfigurable topological routing in nonlinear photonic systems

Original Articles

- Dynamically reconfigurable topological routing in nonlinear photonic systems
- Light: Science & Applications Vol. 15, Issue 2, Pages: 499-508(2026)
- Affiliations：
  
  1.Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM 87185, USA
  2.Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, Physikalisches Institut, and Würzburg-Dresden Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat, Lehrstuhl für Technische Physik, Am Hubland, Würzburg 97074, Germany
- Author bio：
  
  Stephan Wong (stewong@sandia.gov)
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1038/s41377-025-02108-1
  CLC：
- Received：08 April 2025，
  
  Revised：2025-09-08，
  
  Accepted：26 October 2025，
  
  Online First：03 January 2026，
  
  Published：28 February 2026
- Accepted：
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Wong, S. et al. Dynamically reconfigurable topological routing in nonlinear photonic systems. Light: Science & Applications, 15, 499-508 (2026).
DOI：

Wong, S. et al. Dynamically reconfigurable topological routing in nonlinear photonic systems. Light: Science & Applications, 15, 499-508 (2026). DOI： 10.1038/s41377-025-02108-1.

摘要

Abstract

The propagation path of topologically protected states is bound to the interface between regions with different topology

and as such

the functionality of linear photonic devices leveraging these states is fixed during fabrication. Here

we propose a mechanism for dynamic control over a driven dissipative system’s local topology

yielding reconfigurable topological interfaces and thus tunable paths for protected routing. We illustrate our approach in non-resonantly pumped polariton lattices

where the nonlinear interaction between the polaritons and the exciton reservoir due to non-resonant pumping can yield picosecond-scale changes in the propagation paths of the chiral edge states. To analytically confirm the numerically observed topological dynamics

we generalize the spectral localizer framework to non-linear non-Hermitian Chern materials and apply this framework to a continuous model of the polariton system based on a driven-dissipative Gross-Pitaevskii equation. In doing so

we show that the local changes in the polariton lattice’s topology are captured by a local Chern marker. Looking forward

we anticipate such reconfigurable topological routing will enable the realization of novel classes of topological photonic devices.

关键词

Keywords

references

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