Topological photonic Su-Schrieffer-Heeger-type coupler
arXiv:2111.08028 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.104.053531
Abstract
We examine the coupling process between the surface modes of a Su-Schrieffer-Heeger lattice both in the linear and the nonlinear regimes. We first develop a coupled-mode theory formalism for the modes of a finite lattice with zero boundary conditions. Our analysis relies on the closed-form expressions for the bulk and the surface eigenmodes of the system. The coupled-mode theory formalism is based on a decomposition of the supermodes into sublattice modes. In the case of the two zero sublattice surface modes, this leads to periodic oscillations between them without the involvement of the bulk modes. We analytically show that launching light only on the waveguide that is located at either edge of the array, can be very effective in successfully exciting the respective surface mode. We extend our analysis, in the case of Kerr nonlinearity, and develop a simplified model that accounts only for the surface modes. By direct numerical simulations, we find that this model can very accurately capture the dynamics of the surface modes when the nonlinearity is small or moderate. On the other hand, in the case of strong nonlinearity, wave mixing leads to the quasi-periodic excitation of the bulk modes, or even to a chaotic behavior where all the modes of the systems are excited, and no prominent signature of the surface modes can be detected.
8 pages, 6 figures
References in corpus (6)
- Topological Photonics
- Analogs of quantum Hall effect edge states in photonic crystals
- Selective enhancement of topologically induced interface states in a dielectric resonator chain
- Photonic topological pumping through the edges of a dynamical four-dimensional quantum Hall system
- Topological Pumping over a Photonic Fibonacci Quasicrystal
- Weakly nonlinear topological gap solitons in Su-Schrieffer-Heeger photonic lattices