Substrate-driven topological engineering in plasmonic Su-Schrieffer-Heeger chains

Fuente: arXiv
Guardado en:
Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Herz, Florian, Naeimi, Alireza, Biehs, Svend-Age
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2026
Materias:
Acceso en línea:
Etiquetas: Agregar Etiqueta
Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!
_version_ 1866918527900844032
author Herz, Florian
Naeimi, Alireza
Biehs, Svend-Age
author_facet Herz, Florian
Naeimi, Alireza
Biehs, Svend-Age
contents We demonstrate the possibility of engineering the topological band structure of a plasmonic Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) chain through the interaction with its electromagnetic environment. We find that the long-range interaction of the in-plane modes of the SSH chain with the surface plasmon polaritons of a planar substrate introduces a band hybridization connected to a change of the Zak phase. On the other hand, the short-range interaction with the substrate introduces a band touching, again with a change in the Zak phase. Surprisingly, this second mechanism enables the emergence of topologically protected edge modes for parameters which correspond to the topologically trivial phase for an isolated plasmonic SSH chain. We study these mechanisms by changing the chain-substrate distance and the dimerization parameter. Finally, we discuss the robustness against disorder and, as one example, the impact of the observed effects on the near-field radiative heat transfer along the chain. Our findings pave the way to the engineering of edge modes in plasmonic topological configurations via the coupling to a plasmonic environment.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_28463
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Substrate-driven topological engineering in plasmonic Su-Schrieffer-Heeger chains
Herz, Florian
Naeimi, Alireza
Biehs, Svend-Age
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
Optics
We demonstrate the possibility of engineering the topological band structure of a plasmonic Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) chain through the interaction with its electromagnetic environment. We find that the long-range interaction of the in-plane modes of the SSH chain with the surface plasmon polaritons of a planar substrate introduces a band hybridization connected to a change of the Zak phase. On the other hand, the short-range interaction with the substrate introduces a band touching, again with a change in the Zak phase. Surprisingly, this second mechanism enables the emergence of topologically protected edge modes for parameters which correspond to the topologically trivial phase for an isolated plasmonic SSH chain. We study these mechanisms by changing the chain-substrate distance and the dimerization parameter. Finally, we discuss the robustness against disorder and, as one example, the impact of the observed effects on the near-field radiative heat transfer along the chain. Our findings pave the way to the engineering of edge modes in plasmonic topological configurations via the coupling to a plasmonic environment.
title Substrate-driven topological engineering in plasmonic Su-Schrieffer-Heeger chains
topic Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
Optics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.28463