Zak phase of photons in optical waveguide lattices

Zak phase, that is, the Berry phase acquired during an adiabatic motion of a Bloch particle across the Brillouin zone, provides a measure of the topological invariant of Bloch bands in one-dimensional crystalline potentials. Here a photonic structure, based on engineered lattices of evanescently coupled optical waveguides, is proposed to detect Zak phase difference of photons undergoing Bloch oscillations in topologically distinct Bloch bands of dimerized superlattices. (C) 2013 Optical Society of America