Photonic crystal nanocavity based on a topological corner state

Topological photonics has emerged as a novel approach to engineering the flow of light and provides unprecedented means for developing diverse photonic elements, including robust optical waveguides immune to structural imperfections. However, the development of nanoscale standing-wave cavities in topological photonics is rather slow, despite its importance when building densely integrated photonic integrated circuits. In this Letter, we report a photonic crystal nanocavity based on a topological corner state, supported at a 90-deg-angled rim of a two-dimensional photonic crystal. A combination of the bulk-edge and edge-corner correspondences guarantees the presence of the higher-order topological state in a hierarchical manner. We experimentally observe a corner mode that is tightly localized in space while supporting a high Q factor over 2,000, verifying its promise as a nanocavity. These results cast new light on the way to introduce nanocavities in topological photonics platforms. (C) 2019 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement