Topological Insulators by Topology Optimization

An acoustic topological insulator (TI) is synthesized using topology optimization, a free material inverse design method. The TI appears spontaneously from the optimization process without imposing requirements on the existence of pseudo spin-1/2 states at the TI interface edge, or the Chern number of the topological phases. The resulting TI is passive; consisting of acoustically hard members placed in an air background and has an operational bandwidth of $\approx$12.5\% showing high transmission. Further analysis demonstrates confinement of more than 99\% of the total field intensity in the TI within at most six lattice constants from the TI interface. The proposed design hereby outperforms a reference from recent literature regarding energy transmission, field confinement and operational bandwidth.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

Designing Photonic Topological Insulators with Quantum-Spin-Hall Edge States using Topology Optimization

Designing photonic topological insulators is highly non-trivial because it requires inversion of band symmetries around the band gap, which was so far done using intuition combined with meticulous trial and error. Here we take a completely different approach: we consider the design of photonic topological insulators as an inverse design problem and use topology optimization to maximize the transmission through an edge mode with a sharp bend. Two design domains composed of two different, but initially identical, C$_\text{6v}$-symmetric unit cells define the geometrical design problem. Remarkably, the optimization results in a photonic topological insulator reminiscent of the shrink-and-grow approach to quantum-spin-Hall photonic topological insulators but with notable differences in the topology of the crystal as well as qualitatively different band structures and with significantly improved performance as gauged by the band-gap sizes, which are at least 50 \% larger than previous designs. Furthermore, we find a directional beta factor exceeding 99 \%, and very low losses for sharp bends. Our approach allows for the introduction of fabrication limitations by design and opens an avenue towards designing PTIs with hitherto unexplored symmetry constraints.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

3D architected isotropic materials with tunable stiffness and buckling strength

This paper presents a class of 3D single-scale isotropic materials with tunable stiffness and buckling strength obtained via topology optimization and subsequent shape optimization. Compared to stiffness-optimal closed-cell plate material, the material class reduces the Young's modulus to a range from 79% to 58%, but improves the uniaxial buckling strength to a range from 180% to 767%. Based on small deformation theory, material stiffness is evaluated using the homogenization method. Buckling strength under a given macroscopic stress state is estimated using linear buckling analysis with Block-Floquet boundary conditions to capture both short and long wavelength buckling modes. The 3D isotropic single-scale materials with tunable properties are designed using topology optimization, and are then further simplified using shape optimization. Both topology and shape optimized results demonstrate that material buckling strength can be significantly enhanced by hybrids between truss and variable thickness plate structures

Maximizing the quality factor to mode volume ratio for ultra-small photonic crystal cavities

Small manufacturing-tolerant photonic crystal cavities are systematically designed using topology optimization to enhance the ratio between quality factor and mode volume, Q/V. For relaxed manufacturing tolerance, a cavity with bow-tie shape is obtained which confines light beyond the diffraction limit into a deep-subwavelength volume. Imposition of a small manufacturing tolerance still results in efficient designs, however, with diffraction-limited confinement. Inspired by numerical results, an elliptic ring grating cavity concept is extracted via geometric fitting. Numerical evaluations demonstrate that for small sizes, topology-optimized cavities enhance the Q/V-ratio by up to two orders of magnitude relative to standard L1 cavities and more than one order of magnitude relative to shape-optimized L1 cavities. An increase in cavity size can enhance the Q/V-ratio by an increase of the Q-factor without significant increase of V. Comparison between optimized and reference cavities illustrates that significant reduction of V requires big topological changes in the cavity

On the competition for ultimately stiff and strong architected materials

Advances in manufacturing techniques may now realize virtually any imaginable microstructures, paving the way for architected materials with properties beyond those found in nature. This has lead to a quest for closing gaps in property-space by carefully designed metamaterials. Development of mechanical metamaterials has gone from open truss lattice structures to closed plate lattice structures with stiffness close to theoretical bounds. However, the quest for optimally stiff and strong materials is complex. Plate lattice structures have higher stiffness and (yield) strength but are prone to buckling at low volume fractions. Hence here, truss lattice structures may still be optimal. To make things more complicated, hollow trusses or structural hierarchy bring closed-walled microstructures back in the competition. Based on analytical and numerical studies of common microstructures from the literature, we provide higher order interpolation schemes for their effective stiffness and (buckling) strength. Furthermore, we provide a case study based on multi-property Ashby charts for weight-optimal porous beams under bending, that demonstrates the intricate interplay between structure and microarchitecture that plays the key role in the design of ultimate load carrying structures. The provided interpolation schemes may also be used to account for microstructural yield and buckling in multiscale design optimization schemes.Comment: 18 pages main manuscript with 6 figures and 10 pages appendix with 2 figure

Fundamental limitations to gain enhancement in periodic media and waveguides

A common strategy to compensate for losses in optical nanostructures is to add gain material in the system. By exploiting slow-light effects it is expected that the gain may be enhanced beyond its bulk value. Here we show that this route cannot be followed uncritically: inclusion of gain inevitably modifies the underlying dispersion law, and thereby may degrade the slow-light properties underlying the device operation and the anticipated gain enhancement itself. This degradation is generic; we demonstrate it for three different systems of current interest (coupled resonator optical waveguides, Bragg stacks, and photonic crystal waveguides). Nevertheless, a small amount of added gain may be beneficial