Exciton-polaritons — the hybrid quasiparticles of excitons and photons — have the potential to serve as a tunable, nonlinear platform for studying topological phenomena. However, due to limitations in materials, experimental observations using an exciton-polariton platform have so far been unable to enter the nonlinear condensation regime.

A photonic topological insulator can guide photons to interfaces designed within the material while preventing light from scattering through the material. Using this property, topological insulators can compel many photons to behave coherently, as if they were a single photon.

A polariton lattice that behaves like a photonic topical insulator, developed by a research team at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), could make it easier for scientists to study the topological effects of nonlinear behavior in light-matter interactions.

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