Topologically protected edge states in time photonic crystals with chiral symmetry

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Yang, Yukun, Hu, Hao, Liu, Liangliang, Yang, Yihao, Yu, Youxiu, Long, Yang, Zheng, Xuezhi, Luo, Yu, Li, Zhuo, Garcia-Vidal, Francisco J.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Yang, Yukun
Hu, Hao
Liu, Liangliang
Yang, Yihao
Yu, Youxiu
Long, Yang
Zheng, Xuezhi
Luo, Yu
Li, Zhuo
Garcia-Vidal, Francisco J.
author_facet Yang, Yukun
Hu, Hao
Liu, Liangliang
Yang, Yihao
Yu, Youxiu
Long, Yang
Zheng, Xuezhi
Luo, Yu
Li, Zhuo
Garcia-Vidal, Francisco J.
contents Time photonic crystals are media in which their electromagnetic parameters are modulated periodically in time, showing promising applications in non-resonant lasers and particle accelerators, among others. Traditionally utilized to study space photonic crystals, topological band theory has also been translated recently to analyze time photonic crystals with time inversion symmetry, enabling the construction of the temporal version of topological edge states. However, temporal disorder can readily break time inversion symmetry in practice, hence likely destroying the edge states associated with this type of time photonic crystals. To overcome this limitation, here we propose a new class of time photonic crystals presenting chiral symmetry instead, whose edge states exhibit superior robustness over the time-reversal-symmetry-protected counterparts. Our time photonic crystal is equivalent to a temporal version of the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model, and the chiral symmetry of this type of time photonic crystals quantizes the winding number defined in the Bloch frequency band. Remarkably, random temporal disorders do not impact the eigenfrequencies of these chiral-symmetry-protected edge states, while instead enhancing their temporal localizations. Our findings thus provide a promising paradigm to control field amplification with exceptional robustness as well as being a feasible platform to investigate various topological phases in time-varying media.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2501_08546
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Topologically protected edge states in time photonic crystals with chiral symmetry
Yang, Yukun
Hu, Hao
Liu, Liangliang
Yang, Yihao
Yu, Youxiu
Long, Yang
Zheng, Xuezhi
Luo, Yu
Li, Zhuo
Garcia-Vidal, Francisco J.
Optics
Time photonic crystals are media in which their electromagnetic parameters are modulated periodically in time, showing promising applications in non-resonant lasers and particle accelerators, among others. Traditionally utilized to study space photonic crystals, topological band theory has also been translated recently to analyze time photonic crystals with time inversion symmetry, enabling the construction of the temporal version of topological edge states. However, temporal disorder can readily break time inversion symmetry in practice, hence likely destroying the edge states associated with this type of time photonic crystals. To overcome this limitation, here we propose a new class of time photonic crystals presenting chiral symmetry instead, whose edge states exhibit superior robustness over the time-reversal-symmetry-protected counterparts. Our time photonic crystal is equivalent to a temporal version of the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model, and the chiral symmetry of this type of time photonic crystals quantizes the winding number defined in the Bloch frequency band. Remarkably, random temporal disorders do not impact the eigenfrequencies of these chiral-symmetry-protected edge states, while instead enhancing their temporal localizations. Our findings thus provide a promising paradigm to control field amplification with exceptional robustness as well as being a feasible platform to investigate various topological phases in time-varying media.
title Topologically protected edge states in time photonic crystals with chiral symmetry
topic Optics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.08546