Photonic topological insulators are currently at the forefront of on-chip photonic research due to their potential for loss-free information transport. Realized in photonic crystals, they enable robust propagation of optical states along domain walls. But how robust is robust? In order to answer this, researchers from TU Delft (QN/Kuipers Lab) and AMOLF quantified photonic edge state transport using phase-resolved near-field optical microscopy. The findings provide a crucial step towards error-free integrated photonic quantum networks. Read the article

 Light: Science & Applications, 10, 9 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-020-00458-6