Topological Phases of Photonic Crystals under Crystalline Symmetries

Sachin Vaidya, Ali Ghorashi, Thomas Christensen, Mikael C. Rechtsman, Wladimir A. Benalcazar

Published 2023-03-17Version 1

Photonic crystals (PhCs) have emerged as a popular platform for realizing various topological phases due to their flexibility and potential for device applications. In this article, we present a comprehensive classification of topological bands in one- and two dimensional photonic crystals, with and without time-reversal symmetry. Our approach exploits the symmetry representations of field eigenmodes at high-symmetry points in momentum space, allowing for the efficient design of a wide range of topological PhCs. In particular, we show that the complete classification provided here is useful for diagnosing photonic crystal analogs of obstructed atomic limits, fragile phases, and stable topological phases that include bands with Dirac points and Chern numbers.