  Phenomena associated with topological properties of physical systems are
naturally robust against perturbations. This robustness is exemplified by
quantized conductance and edge state transport in the quantum Hall and quantum
spin Hall effects. Here we show how exploiting topological properties of
optical systems can be used to implement robust photonic devices. We
demonstrate how quantum spin Hall Hamiltonians can be created with linear
optical elements using a network of coupled resonator optical waveguides (CROW)
in two dimensions. We find that key features of quantum Hall systems, including
the characteristic Hofstadter butterfly and robust edge state transport, can be
obtained in such systems. As a specific application, we show that the
topological protection can be used to dramatically improve the performance of
optical delay lines and to overcome limitations related to disorder in photonic
technologies.
