Observation of nonlinear fractal higher order topological insulator

Higher-order topological insulators (HOTIs) are unique materials hosting topologically protected states, whose dimensionality is at least by 2 lower than that of the bulk. Topological states in such insulators may be strongly confined in their corners which leads to considerable enhancement of nonlinear processes involving such states. However, all nonlinear HOTIs demonstrated so far were built on periodic bulk lattice materials. Here, we demonstrate the first nonlinear photonic HOTI with the fractal origin. Despite their fractional effective dimensionality, the HOTIs constructed here on two different types of the Sierpiński gasket waveguide arrays, may support topological corner states for unexpectedly wide range of coupling strengths, even in parameter regions where conventional HOTIs become trivial. We demonstrate thresholdless spatial solitons bifurcating from corner states in nonlinear fractal HOTIs and show that their localization can be efficiently controlled by the input beam power. We observe sharp differences in nonlinear light localization on outer and multiple inner corners and edges representative for these fractal materials. Our findings not only represent a new paradigm for nonlinear topological insulators, but also open new avenues for potential applications of fractal materials to control the light flow.

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Publication Details

Journal
Light Science & Applications
Published
2024-09-20
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-024-01611-1
Citations
27
Primary Topic
Topological Materials and Phenomena
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
9.11

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article

Observation of nonlinear fractal higher order topological insulator

Victor N. Zadkov, Yongdong Li, С. В. Чекалин, S. P. Kulik et al.
27 citations
Light Science & Applications
Topological Materials and Phenomena
9.11
article

Observation of nonlinear fractal higher order topological insulator

Victor N. Zadkov, Yongdong Li, С. В. Чекалин, S. P. Kulik, I. V. Dyakonov, Yaroslav V. Kartashov, Nikolay N. Skryabin, S. A. Zhuravitskii, Meng Cao, V. O. Kompanets, Yiqi Zhang, Hua Zhong, А. A. Калинкин
article en
27 citations

Abstract

Higher-order topological insulators (HOTIs) are unique materials hosting topologically protected states, whose dimensionality is at least by 2 lower than that of the bulk. Topological states in such insulators may be strongly confined in their corners which leads to considerable enhancement of nonlinear processes involving such states. However, all nonlinear HOTIs demonstrated so far were built on periodic bulk lattice materials. Here, we demonstrate the first nonlinear photonic HOTI with the fractal origin. Despite their fractional effective dimensionality, the HOTIs constructed here on two different types of the Sierpiński gasket waveguide arrays, may support topological corner states for unexpectedly wide range of coupling strengths, even in parameter regions where conventional HOTIs become trivial. We demonstrate thresholdless spatial solitons bifurcating from corner states in nonlinear fractal HOTIs and show that their localization can be efficiently controlled by the input beam power. We observe sharp differences in nonlinear light localization on outer and multiple inner corners and edges representative for these fractal materials. Our findings not only represent a new paradigm for nonlinear topological insulators, but also open new avenues for potential applications of fractal materials to control the light flow.

Light Science & ApplicationsVol. 13(1)
National Research University Higher School of Economics (RU), Lomonosov Moscow State University (RU), Institute of Spectroscopy (RU), Ministry of Education (TW), Ministry of Education (BD), Xi'an Jiaotong University (CN)
National Natural Science Foundation of China, Russian Science Foundation, Foundation for the Advancement of Theoretical Physics and Mathematics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, Natural Science Basic Research Program of Shaanxi Province
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Openalex Percentile: Top 1%
Topological Materials and Phenomena
9.11
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