Dr Vincenzo Giannini said: “The results of this research will have a huge impact on the way we conceive light. Topological insulators were only discovered in the last decade, but are already providing us with new phenomena to study and new ways to explore important concepts in physics.”
In normal materials, light interacts with electrons on the surface of a material and within it. But, by using theoretical physics to model the behaviour of light and topological insulators, the researchers have found that light could interact with a single electron on the surface. This, the team believes, would create a coupling that merges some of the properties of the light and the electron.
Normally, light travels in a straight line, but when bound to the electron it would instead follow its path, tracing the surface of the material. However, Dr Giannini’s work showed that, as well as the light taking the property of the electron and circulating the particle, the electron would also take on some of the properties of the light. Instead of stopping when faced with a defect, the electron would still be able to travel onwards with the aid of light. If this could be adapted into photonics, says the team, it could create more robust circuits which are less vulnerable to disruption and physical imperfections.