SC502

Introduction to the concepts of topological insulators and topological physics; Introduction to topological photonics; Origins of topological protection of transport; Classes of photonic topologic al insulators; Photonic realization of fundamental topological models; Topological photonics in synthetic space; photonic topological insulators in quasi-crystals, amorphous systems, and in fractal structures; topological insulator lasers; topological quantum photonics; topological nonlinear optics (solitons, instabilities, etc.); topological exciton-polaritons; topology and disorder (topological Anderson insulators); topological photonics in non-Hermitian systems; Topology and PT-symmetry; Future directions, current challenges, etc.

This course will enable you to:

• The participants should be able to know the principles of topological insulators, and how to extract their main properties from experimental observables and from theoretical models
• The participants should be able to know how to implement these principles in photonic systems, and design photonic topological insulators
• The participants should be able to design photonic topological systems utilizing synthetic space (such as modal ladders, frequency combs, etc.).
•  The participants should be able to explain the essentials of topological insulator lasers, their features and the technological challenges
• The participants should be able to calculate the band structure of photonic topological systems
• The participants should be able to simulate the propagation dynamics in photonic topological systems
• The participants should be able to identify current challenges, explain the state of the art in the field, and discuss potential applications.

PhD students, postdocs, and researchers (including senior researchers). The necessary background knowledge is electromagnetism and optics, some basic knowledge on periodic systems (such as periodic potentials and/or 1D and 2D photonic crystals). All else will be explained at an intuitive level.

Moti Segev is the Robert J. Shillman Distinguished Professor of Physics and Electrical Engineering, Technion, Israel. He received his PhD from the Technion in 1990. After postdoc at Caltech, he joined Princeton as Assistant Professor (1994), becoming Associate Professor in 1997, and Professor in 1999. Subsequently, Moti went back to Israel, and in 2009 was appointed Distinguished Professor. He won numerous awards, among them the 2007 Quantum Electronics Prize of the EPS, the 2009 Max Born Award of the OSA, and the 2014 Arthur Schawlow Prize of the APS. In 2011, he was elected to the Israel Academy of Sciences, in 2015 to the National Academy of Science (USA), and in 2021 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2014 Moti Segev won the Israel Prize (highest honor in Israel) and in 2019 he has won the EMET Prize. However, above all his achievements, Moti takes pride in the success of his graduate students and postdocs, among them are currently 23 professors and many holding senior R&D positions in industry.