Strong interlayer coupling and stable topological flat bands in twisted bilayer photonic Moire superlattices

Abstract

The moir\'e superlattice of misaligned atomic bilayers paves the way for designing a new class of materials with wide tunability. In this work, we propose a photonic analog of the moir\'e superlattice based on dielectric resonator quasi-atoms. In sharp contrast to van der Waals materials with weak interlayer coupling, we realize the strong coupling regime in a moir\'e superlattice, characterized by cascades of robust flat bands at large twist-angles. Surprisingly, we find that these flat bands are characterized by a non-trivial band topology, the origin of which is the moir\'e pattern of the resonator arrangement. The physical manifestation of the flat band topology is a robust one-dimensional conducting channel on edge, protected by the reflection symmetry of the moir\'e superlattice. By explicitly breaking the underlying reflection symmetry on the boundary terminations, we show that the first-order topological edge modes naturally deform into higher-order topological corner modes. Our work pioneers the physics of topological phases in the designable platform of photonic moir\'e superlattices beyond the weakly coupled regime.