Polarization-independent second-order photonic topological corner states

Abstract: Recently, much attention has been paid to second-order photonic topological insulators (SPTIs), because of their support for highly localized corner states with excellent robustness. SPTIs have been implemented in either transverse magnetic (TM) or transverse electric (TE) polarizations in two-dimensional (2D) photonic crystals (PCs), and the resultant topological corner states are polarization-dependent, which limits their application in polarization-independent optics. However, to achieve polarization-independent corner states is not easy, since they are usually in-gap and the exact location in the topological bandgap is not known in advance. Here, we report on a SPTI based on a 2D square-lattice PC made of an elliptic metamaterial, and whether the bandgap is topological or trivial depends on the choice of the unit cell. It is found that locations of topological bandgaps of TM and TE polarizations in the frequency spectrum can be independently controlled by the out-of-plane permittivity $\varepsilon_\perp$ and in-plane permittivity $\varepsilon_{\varparallel}$, respectively, and more importantly, the location of in-gap corner states can also be separately manipulated by them. From this, we achieve topological corner states for both TM and TE polarizations with the same frequency in the PC by adjusting $\varepsilon_\perp$ and $\varepsilon_\varparallel$, and their robustness against disorders and defects are numerically demonstrated. The proposed SPTI provides a potential application scenario for polarization-independent topological photonic devices.