Nonlinear Jackiw-Rebbi exciton-polaritons at van der Waals topological interfaces

Abstract

Topological photonic structures provide a powerful means of confining and directing light through interface states formed between photonic phases with distinct topological properties. Van der Waals (vdW) materials offer complementary opportunities for nanophotonics: their optical properties can be selected from a wide family of layered crystals, while their atomically smooth surfaces and lack of lattice-matching constraints enable complex photonic heterostructures to be assembled layer by layer. This flexibility allows topological photonic confinement and strong excitonic coupling to be engineered separately within the same structure. Here, patterned low-loss dielectric hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) defines the photonic modes, while an encapsulated WSe2 monolayer provides the excitonic resonance that couples directly to the confined optical field. We use this approach to realise Jackiw-Rebbi exciton-polaritons in a one-dimensional hBN double-grating heterostructure. Strong coupling between the WSe2 exciton and a photonic Jackiw-Rebbi state localised at the interface between two topologically distinct gratings produces upper and lower Jackiw-Rebbi polariton branches. By varying the temperature from 4.7 to 300 K, we tune the exciton across the photonic bandgap and trace the evolution and anticrossing of these branches using angle-resolved reflectance and photoluminescence spectroscopy. Power-dependent photoluminescence further reveals a pronounced nonlinear response of the confined Jackiw-Rebbi polariton, including a blueshift of up to 5 meV and correlated changes in its intensity scaling and linewidth. These results establish vdW photonic heterostructures as a versatile platform for engineering tunable and nonlinear polaritons localised at topological interfaces.