Amorphous photonic topological insulator

Abstract

Photonic topological insulators (PTIs) exhibit robust photonic edge states protected by band topology, similar to electronic edge states in topological band insulators. Standard band theory does not apply to amorphous phases of matter, which are formed by non-crystalline lattices with no long-range positional order but only short-range order. Among other interesting properties, amorphous media exhibit transitions between glassy and liquid phases, accompanied by dramatic changes in short-range order. Here, we experimentally investigate amorphous variants of a Chern-number-based PTI. By tuning the disorder strength in the lattice, we demonstrate that photonic topological edge states can persist into the amorphous regime, prior to the glass-to-liquid transition. After the transition to a liquid-like lattice configuration, the signatures of topological edge states disappear. This interplay between topology and short-range order in amorphous lattices paves the way for new classes of non-crystalline topological photonic materials.

arXiv comment13 pages, 4 figures

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• Amorphous topological matter: theory and experiment
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• Topological Gaps by Twisting
• Topological photonic alloy
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• Topological Random Fractals
• Noncrystalline topological superconductors
• Topological Anderson amorphous insulator
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• Topological Gaps in Quasi-Periodic Spin Chains: A Numerical and K-Theoretic Analysis
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• Babinet-Complementary Structures for Implementation of Pseudospin-Polarized Waveguides
• Disordered topological graphs enhancing nonlinear phenomena
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