Abstract
Topological photonics is a blossoming field that allows disorder resistance to be embedded within the design of optical systems. The promises of this field – to protect delicate states in unidirectional waveguides by making them robust to imperfections introduced during fabrication –- have inspired considerable attention and interest from the photonics community. Thus far, these fascinating states have been realized in a plethora of media including photonic chips, ring-resonators, and direct-written waveguides in bulk crystals. While they have shown potential, a noticeable absence so far in this field is the most technologically successful and utilized photonic medium –- optical fibre.Optical fibre has been produced and utilized on a scale inaccessible to other photonic media. Fibre has ushered in a new age of global communication and interconnection by acting as a web of glass connecting the world. Despite this commercial success, optical fibre remains an ever-evolving field that requires new ideas and designs to meet the world's insatiable appetite for communication.
This thesis weaves-together these two fields, the established, commercially relevant, and highly applied field of optical fibre, with the exciting and paradigm-shifting field of topological photonics. In this thesis, I describe the design, simulation, and fabrication of two different types of topological optical fibre. I detail the analytical approach behind the fibre models, explain how to simulate the fibres numerically, and explore light propagation within these fibres. By leveraging both existing techniques and novel experimental methods, I characterise the topology present in these fibres and investigate their innate robustness against defects and disorder.
| Date of Award | 26 Jun 2024 |
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| Original language | English |
| Awarding Institution |
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| Supervisor | Peter Mosley (Supervisor), Anton Souslov (Supervisor), Habib Rostami (Supervisor) & Joshua Nunn (Supervisor) |
Keywords
- Topological Photonics
- Optical fibre