Details of the topological state transition induced by gradually increased disorder in photonic Chern insulators

Bing Yang*, Hongfang Zhang, Qiang Shi, Tong Wu, Yong Ma, Zengtao Lv, Xia Xiao, Ruixin Dong, Xunling Yan, Xiangdong Zhang

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

16 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Using two well-defined empirical parameters, we numerically investigate the details of the disorder-induced topological state transition (TST) in photonic Chern insulators composed of two-dimensional magnetic photonic crystals (MPCs). The TST undergoes a gradual process, accompanied with some interesting phenomena as the disorder of rod positions in MPCs increases gradually. This kind of TST is determined by the competition among the topologically protected edge state, disorder-induced wave localizations and bulk states in the system. More interestingly, the disorder-induced wave localizations almost have no influence on the one-way propagation of the original photonic topological states (PTSs), and the unidirectional nature of the PTSs at the edge area can survive even when the bulk states arise at stronger disorders. Our results provide detailed demonstrations for the deep understanding of fundamental physics underlying topology and disorder and are also of practical significance in device fabrication with PTSs.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)31487-31498
Number of pages12
JournalOptics Express
Volume28
Issue number21
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 12 Oct 2020

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