Observation of Unidirectional s-p Orbital Topological Edge States in Driven Photonic Lattices
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arXiv
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2026
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| author | Rajeevan, Gayathry Mukherjee, Sebabrata |
| author_facet | Rajeevan, Gayathry Mukherjee, Sebabrata |
| contents | Time-periodic modulation of a static system is a powerful method for realizing robust unidirectional topological states. So far, all such realizations have been based on interactions among $s$ orbitals, without incorporating inter-orbital couplings. Here, we demonstrate higher-orbital Floquet topological insulators by introducing periodically modulated couplings between the optical $s$ and $p$ orbitals in a square lattice. The staggered phase of the $s$-$p$ couplings gives rise to a synthetic uniform $π$ magnetic flux per plaquette of the lattice, and periodic driving of the couplings opens a topological bandgap, characterized by the Floquet winding number. We image topological edge modes of $s$-$p$ orbitals traveling unidirectionally around a corner. Here, the topological phases are realized by a combined effect of the periodic driving and synthetic magnetic flux. Consequently, when the synthetic flux is turned off, the system becomes trivial over a range of driving parameters. Our results open a promising pathway for exploring topological phenomena by introducing the orbital degree of freedom. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_08914 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Observation of Unidirectional s-p Orbital Topological Edge States in Driven Photonic Lattices Rajeevan, Gayathry Mukherjee, Sebabrata Optics Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics Quantum Physics Time-periodic modulation of a static system is a powerful method for realizing robust unidirectional topological states. So far, all such realizations have been based on interactions among $s$ orbitals, without incorporating inter-orbital couplings. Here, we demonstrate higher-orbital Floquet topological insulators by introducing periodically modulated couplings between the optical $s$ and $p$ orbitals in a square lattice. The staggered phase of the $s$-$p$ couplings gives rise to a synthetic uniform $π$ magnetic flux per plaquette of the lattice, and periodic driving of the couplings opens a topological bandgap, characterized by the Floquet winding number. We image topological edge modes of $s$-$p$ orbitals traveling unidirectionally around a corner. Here, the topological phases are realized by a combined effect of the periodic driving and synthetic magnetic flux. Consequently, when the synthetic flux is turned off, the system becomes trivial over a range of driving parameters. Our results open a promising pathway for exploring topological phenomena by introducing the orbital degree of freedom. |
| title | Observation of Unidirectional s-p Orbital Topological Edge States in Driven Photonic Lattices |
| topic | Optics Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics Quantum Physics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.08914 |