Manipulating Topological Polaritons in Optomechanical Ladders

Abstract The manipulation of topological polaritons is proposed in optomechanical ladders consisting of an optical Su‐Schrieffer‐Heeger (SSH) chain and a mechanical SSH chain connected through optomechanical (interchain) interactions. It is shown that the topological phase diagrams are divided into six areas by four boundaries and that there are four topological phases characterized by the Berry phases. It is found that a topologically nontrivial phase of the polaritons is generated by the optomechanical interaction between the optical and mechanical SSH chains even though they are both in the topologically trivial phases. Counter‐intuitively, six edge states appear in one of the topological phases with only two topological nontrivial bands, and some edge states are localized near but not at the boundaries of an open‐boundary ladder. Moreover, a 2D Chern insulator with higher Chern numbers is simulated by introducing proper periodical adiabatic modulations of the driving amplitude and frequency. The work not only opens a route towards topological polaritons manipulation, but also exerts a far‐reaching influence on designing topologically protected polaritonic devices.