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Fully Flat Bands in a Photonic Dipolar Kagome Lattice

Han-Rong Xia1,2, Ziyao Wang2, Yunrui Wang1, Zhen Gao2,*, and Meng Xiao1,3,†

  • 1Key Laboratory of Artificial Micro- and Nano-structures of Ministry of Education and School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
  • 2State Key Laboratory of Optical Fiber and Cable Manufacture Technology, Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China
  • 3Wuhan Institute of Quantum Technology, Wuhan 430206, China

  • *Contact author: gaoz@sustech.edu.cn
  • †Contact author: phmxiao@whu.edu.cn

Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 176902 – Published 21 October, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/bt9s-qsfj

Abstract

Flat bands, characterized by zero group velocity and strong energy localization, enable interaction-enhanced phenomena across both quantum and classical systems. Existing photonic flat-band implementations were limited to evanescent-wave systems, specific lattice symmetries, or complex supercell modulations. A simple, universal, and efficient approach to realizing flat bands without dedicated source excitation is yet to be explored. Here, inspired by geometrically frustrated configurations, we theoretically proposed and experimentally demonstrated threefold-degenerate flat bands by integrating orbital and rotational degrees of freedom in a photonic dipolar kagome lattice. By rotating the dipole orientation, the system exhibits a band flip transition at which point all bands achieve complete flatness and degeneracy across the entire Brillouin zone. In contrast to conventional s-orbital kagome lattices with only a single flat band, our approach flattens the entire band structure, eliminating dispersive modes and enabling compatibility with arbitrary excitations. These results establish a new mechanism for flat-band engineering, offering a tunable strategy for enhancing light-matter interactions and may have applications in compact photonic devices and energy-efficient information processing.

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