  Topological insulators are a new class of materials that have engendered
considerable research interest among the condensed matter community owing
primarily to their application prospects in quantum computations and
spintronics. Many of the associated phenomena, however, can be well reproduced
in classical photonic systems with the additional advantage of relatively less
demanding fabrication and engineered system characteristics. Therefore, the
photonic analogs of topological materials have gained prominence in the last
decade, not only in the field of optics but as an active research front of the
topological physics at large. In this article, we succinctly review the
fundamental concepts of topological physics and provide a concise description
of the photonic topological insulators.
