Self-induced topological transitions and edge states supported by nonlinear staggered potentials

By Y. Hadad, Alexander B. Khanikaev, Andrea Alù. 2015

171 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The canonical Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) array is one of the basic geometries that have spurred significant interest in topological band-gap modes. Here, we show that the judicious inclusion of third-order Kerr nonlinearities in SSH arrays opens rich physics in topological insulators, including the possibility of supporting self-induced topological transitions, as a function of the applied intensity. We highlight the emergence of a class of topological solutions in nonlinear SSH arrays localized at the array edges and with unusual properties. As opposed to their linear counterparts, these nonlinear states decay to a plateau of nonzero amplitude inside the array, highlighting the local nature of topologically nontrivial band gaps in nonlinear systems. We study the conditions under which these states can be excited and their temporal dynamics as a function of the applied excitation, paving the way to interesting directions in the physics of topological edge states with robust propagation properties based on nonlinear interactions in suitably designed periodic arrays.

Subfields: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/aeb4b39cc8c818a1c57907222d2dea859ccc2b93

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

1. Nathan Goldman
2. T. Ozawa
3. Andrea Alù
4. H. Price
5. M. Rechtsman
6. A. Amo
7. Alexander B. Khanikaev
8. I. Carusotto

Citations in the corpus

• Modulational instability and solitary waves in polariton topological insulators (2016, background): “mention here a paper linking topology and nonlinearity in a one dimen‐ sional dimer chain [16].”
• Topological photonics (2018, methodology): “A related study in a nonlinear but conservative one-dimensional SSH model was reported by Hadad, Khanikaev, and Alù (2016).”
• Roadmap on topological photonics (2022, background): “In [99], a topological invariant has been defined locally at each point of a periodic array through linearization, and it has been shown that, as the field intensity locally changes, it can close and open bandgaps, inducing a topological transition and a corresponding local switch of topological ord”