Experimental characterization of the electromagnetic vector field in topological photonic crystals featuring the photonic quantum valley Hall effect, using phase-resolving near-field optical microscopy, reveals two orders of magnitude higher robustness compared to a conventional waveguide.

OSA Technical Digest
Photonic Forces

Arora, S., Bauer, T., Barczyk, R., Verhagen, E., & Kuipers, K. (2021). Direct quantification of topological protection in symmetry-protected photonic edge states at telecom wavelengths. In Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics, CLEO 2021.