Topological photonics has been introduced as a powerful platform for integrated optics, since it can deal with robust light transport, and be further extended to the quantum world. Strikingly, valley-contrasting physics in topological photonic structures contributes to valley-related edge states, their unidirectional coupling, and even valley-dependent wave division in topological junctions. Here, we design and fabricate nanophotonic topological harpoon-shaped beam splitters (HSBSs) based on 120-deg-bending interfaces and demonstrate the first on-chip valley-dependent quantum information process. Two-photon quantum interference, namely, Hong-Ou-Mandel interference with a high visibility of $0.956\pm 0.006$, is realized with our $50/50$ HSBS, which is constructed by two topologically distinct domain walls. Cascading this kind of HSBS together, we also demonstrate a simple quantum photonic circuit and generation of a path-entangled state. Our work shows that the photonic valley state can be used in quantum information processing, and it is possible to realize more complex quantum circuits with valley-dependent photonic topological insulators, which provides a novel method for on-chip quantum information processing.

3-dB couplers, which are commonly used in photonic integrated circuits for on-chip information processing, precision measurement, and quantum computing, face challenges in achieving robust performance due to their limited 3-dB bandwidths and sensitivity to fabrication errors. To address this, we introduce topological physics to nanophotonics, developing a framework for topological 3-dB couplers. These couplers exhibit broad working wavelength range and robustness against fabrication dimensional errors. By leveraging valley-Hall topology and mirror symmetry, the photonic-crystal-slab couplers achieve ideal 3-dB splitting characterized by a wavelength-insensitive scattering matrix. Tolerance analysis confirms the superiority on broad bandwidth of 48 nm and robust splitting against dimensional errors of 20 nm. We further propose a topological interferometer for on-chip distance measurement, which also exhibits robustness against dimensional errors. This extension of topological principles to the fields of interferometers, may open up new possibilities for constructing robust wavelength division multiplexing, temperature-drift-insensitive sensing, and optical coherence tomography applications.

Valley photonic crystal is a typical strategy of topological photonics with promising applications for novel integrated waveguides. The valley pseudospin provides an intrinsic paradigm to implement unidirectional coupling with robustly optical transport. But the key issue on the analysis of unidirectional coupling based on topological modes is lack of deep understanding on valley photonic crystals. In this work, we systematically study the mechanism and performance of unidirectional coupling between valley photonic crystal waveguides and chiral dipole emitters. Forming by two topologically-distinct valley photonic crystals, there are two types of valley-interface waveguides, i.e. bearded stack with glide-plane symmetry and zigzag stack with inversion symmetry. Analytical derivation shows that the Stokes parameters of topological eigenmodes can predict the directionality in the above two types of valley-interface waveguides, which is also confirmed by full-wave simulations. The strategy of bearded valley-interface waveguide can be easier to achieve high efficiency of unidirectional coupling than the zigzag case, and can relax the bias error of frequency and source location. It is also proved that the topological-protected unidirectional coupling supports robust transport against sharp-bending interface. Finally, we give a brief summary and perspective in the development of topological integrated photonics. This work gives a deterministic guidance on chiral light-matter interaction based on topological photonics, as well as shows the outlook of topological integrated photonics.

In silicon photonics, the cavity mode is a fundamental mechanism to design integrated passive devices for on-chip optical information processing. Recently, the corner state in a second-order topological photonic crystal (PC) rendered a global method to achieve an intrinsic cavity mode. It is crucial to explore such a topological corner state in silicon photonic integrated circuits (PICs) under in-plane excitation. Here, we study both theoretically and experimentally the topological nanophotonic corner state in a silicon-on-insulator PC cavity at a telecommunications wavelength. In theory, the expectation values of a mirror-flip operation for the Bloch modes of a PC slab are used to characterize the topological phase. Derived from topologically distinct bulk polarizations of two types of dielectric-vein PCs, the corner state is induced in a 90-deg-bend interface, localizing at the corner point of real space and the Brillouin zone boundary of reciprocal space. To implement in-plane excitation in an experiment, we fabricate a cross-coupled PC cavity based on the bend interface and directly image the corner state near 1383 nm using a far-field microscope. Finally, by means of the temporal coupled-mode theory, the intrinsic Q factor of a cross-coupled cavity (about 8000) is retrieved from the measured transmission spectra. This work gives deterministic guidance and potential applications for cavity-mode-based passive devices in silicon PICs, such as optical filters, routers, and multiplexers.

The recent realization of all-dielectric valley photonic crystals (VPCs) in nanoscale not only provides a standard platform to explore many topological phases of light with protected edge modes, but also shows promising applications for designing high-performance nanophotonic devices. However, the widely reported all-dielectric VPCs are limited to one single polarization, and it is challenging to manipulate the polarization degree of freedom of light and design polarizing devices using VPCs. Here, we design a dual-polarization all-dielectric VPC and propose a topological polarization beam splitter. The phase vortex distributions of bulk modes at different valleys characterize the nonzero valley Chern numbers for both TE and TM polarizations, indicating the implementation of topologically nontrivial dual-polarization band gaps. This leads to dual-polarization valley-dependent edge modes located at interfaces with different shapes. The topological valley transport around sharp-bends is also demonstrated for both TE and TM polarizations. Finally, a harpoon-shaped polarization beam splitter is proposed, and the simulated results confirm the good functionality of polarization separation. Our work shows the flexible control of light in topological photonic systems with the polarization degree of freedom, and has promising applications in polarization multiplexing photonic devices owing to the enlarged the optical information-processing capacity.

Sharp‐bending waveguide is a key element for ultra‐compact and densely integrated photonic devices, which is promising to enlarge the capability of modern information processing in a single chip. Topological photonics manifest the nature of robust propagation against sharp bending and such robustness has been experimentally demonstrated in topological integrated interfaces. It is important to quantify the bending loss of topological interface but has remained exclusive. In this work, we report on the characterization of sharp‐bending robustness in the integrated topological interface of valley photonic crystals (VPCs) by experimentally quantifying the ultralow bending loss. The VPCs are designed on a standard silicon‐on‐insulator platform with the inversion‐symmetry broken in honeycomb lattice, and four types of topological interfaces can be constructed by two topologically‐distinct VPCs. As one of the representative cases, zigzag‐AA interface is applied to demonstrate the robust propagation along sharp bending. In experiment, we fabricate a series of VPC interfaces with different turn number and the same transmission distance, which perform the ultralow bending loss less than 0.02 dB per 120‐deg turning. Furthermore, we experimentally characterize the propagation loss in the integrated interfaces. Our approach not only shows the ability of VPC topological interfaces to suppress backscattering stemming from sharp bending, but also paves the way for topological nanophotonic dense integration.