Topological transitions and Anderson localization of light in disordered atomic arrays

Abstract

We explore the interplay of disorder and topological phenomena in honeycomb lattices of atoms coupled by the electromagnetic field. On the one hand, disorder can trigger transitions between distinct topological phases and drive the lattice into the topological Anderson insulator state. On the other hand, the nontrivial topology of the photonic band structure suppresses Anderson localization of modes that disorder introduces inside the band gap of the ideal lattice. Furthermore, we discover that disorder can both open a topological pseudogap in the spectrum of an otherwise topologically trivial system and introduce spatially localized modes inside it.

Extended version with two appendices (11 pages, 5 figures)

References in corpus (9)

• Topological Photonics
• Anderson Transitions
• Reflection-Free One-Way Edge Modes in a Gyromagnetic Photonic Crystal
• Analogs of quantum Hall effect edge states in photonic crystals
• Topological Anderson Insulator
• Photonic Topological Anderson Insulators
• Topologically protected valley-dependent quantum photonic circuits
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Cited by in corpus (9)

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• Higher-order topological phases in crystalline and non-crystalline systems: a review
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• Topologically protected subradiant cavity polaritons through linewidth narrowing enabled by dissipationless edge states
• Wave-packet spreading in the disordered and nonlinear Su-Schrieffer-Heeger chain
• Quantum percolation on Lieb Lattices
• Recent progress on disorder-induced topological phases
• Photonic topological Anderson insulator in a two-dimensional atomic lattice
• Anomalous Non-Hermitian Topological Anderson Insulator