Second Chern crystals in four-dimensional synthetic translation space with inherently nontrivial topology

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Chen, Xiao-Dong, Shi, Fu-Long, Liu, Jian-Wei, Shen, Ke, He, Xin-Tao, Chen, Wen-Jie, Dong, Jian-Wen
Format: Preprint
Published: 2021
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author Chen, Xiao-Dong
Shi, Fu-Long
Liu, Jian-Wei
Shen, Ke
He, Xin-Tao
Chen, Wen-Jie
Dong, Jian-Wen
author_facet Chen, Xiao-Dong
Shi, Fu-Long
Liu, Jian-Wei
Shen, Ke
He, Xin-Tao
Chen, Wen-Jie
Dong, Jian-Wen
contents Topological states, first known as quantum Hall effect or Chern insulating crystal, have been generalized to many classical wave systems where potential applications such as robust waveguiding, quantum computing and high-performance lasers are expected. However, a crystal can be either topologically trivial or nontrivial, depending on its detailed configuration, and one needs to carefully design the structure and calculate its topological invariant before the actual applications. Here, we theoretically study and experimentally demonstrate the second Chern crystal in a four-dimensional space by introducing two extra synthetic translation dimensions. Due to the inherently nontrivial topology of the synthetic translation space, this abstract four-dimensional crystal is guaranteed to be topologically nontrivial regardless of the detailed configuration. The dimensional hierarchy of gapless boundary modes can be deduced by dimension reduction. Remarkably, one-dimensional gapless dislocation modes are observed and their robustness is confirmed in our experiments. This ubiquitous phenomenon in synthetic translation space provides perspectives on the findings of topologically nontrivial crystals and inspires the designs of classical wave devices.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2112_05356
institution arXiv
publishDate 2021
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Second Chern crystals in four-dimensional synthetic translation space with inherently nontrivial topology
Chen, Xiao-Dong
Shi, Fu-Long
Liu, Jian-Wei
Shen, Ke
He, Xin-Tao
Chen, Wen-Jie
Dong, Jian-Wen
Optics
Applied Physics
Topological states, first known as quantum Hall effect or Chern insulating crystal, have been generalized to many classical wave systems where potential applications such as robust waveguiding, quantum computing and high-performance lasers are expected. However, a crystal can be either topologically trivial or nontrivial, depending on its detailed configuration, and one needs to carefully design the structure and calculate its topological invariant before the actual applications. Here, we theoretically study and experimentally demonstrate the second Chern crystal in a four-dimensional space by introducing two extra synthetic translation dimensions. Due to the inherently nontrivial topology of the synthetic translation space, this abstract four-dimensional crystal is guaranteed to be topologically nontrivial regardless of the detailed configuration. The dimensional hierarchy of gapless boundary modes can be deduced by dimension reduction. Remarkably, one-dimensional gapless dislocation modes are observed and their robustness is confirmed in our experiments. This ubiquitous phenomenon in synthetic translation space provides perspectives on the findings of topologically nontrivial crystals and inspires the designs of classical wave devices.
title Second Chern crystals in four-dimensional synthetic translation space with inherently nontrivial topology
topic Optics
Applied Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2112.05356