Topological effects continue to fascinate physicists since more than three decades. One of their main applications are high-precision measurements of the resistivity. We propose to make also use of the spatially separated edge states. It is possible to realize strongly direction-dependent group velocities. They can also be tuned over orders of magnitude so that robust delay lines and interference devices are within reach.
Edge states exhibit the nontrivial topology of energy band in the bulk. As localized states at boundaries, many-particle edge states may obey a special symmetry that is broken in the bulk. When local particle-particle interaction is induced, they may support a particular property. We consider an anisotropic two-dimensional Su-Schrieffer-Heeger Hubbard model and examine the appearance of $eta$-pairing edge states. In the absence of Hubbard interaction, the energy band is characterized by topologically invariant polarization in association with edge states. In the presence of on-site Hubbard interaction, $eta$-pairing edge states with an off-diagonal long-range order appear in the nontrivial topological phase, resulting in the condensation of pairs at the boundary. In addition, as Hamiltonian eigenstates, the edge states contain one paired component and one unpaired component. Neither affects the other; they act as two-fluid states. From numerical simulations of many-particle scattering processes, a clear manifestation and experimental detection scheme of topologically protected two-fluid edge states are provided.
Entangled multiphoton states lie at the heart of quantum information, computing, and communications. In recent years, topology has risen as a new avenue to robustly transport quantum states in the presence of fabrication defects, disorder and other noise sources. Whereas topological protection of single photons and correlated photons has been recently demonstrated experimentally, the observation of topologically protected entangled states has thus far remained elusive. Here, we experimentally demonstrate the topological protection of spatially-entangled biphoton states. We observe robustness in crucial features of the topological biphoton correlation map in the presence of deliberately introduced disorder in the silicon nanophotonic structure, in contrast with the lack of robustness in nontopological structures. The topological protection is shown to ensure the coherent propagation of the entangled topological modes, which may lead to robust propagation of quantum information in disordered systems.
Recent theoretical studies have extended the Berry phase framework to account for higher electric multipole moments, quadrupole and octupole topological phases have been proposed. Although the two-dimensional quantized quadrupole insulators have been demonstrated experimentally, octupole topological phases have not previously been observed experimentally. Here we report on the experimental realization of classical analog of octupole topological insulator in the electric circuit system. Three-dimensional topolectrical circuits for realizing such topological phases are constructed experimentally. We observe octupole topological states protected by the topology of the bulk, which are localized at the corners. Our results provide conclusive evidence of a form of robustness against disorder and deformation, which is characteristic of octupole topological insulators. Our study opens a new route toward higher-order topological phenomena in three-dimensions and paves the way for employing topolectrical circuitry to study complex topological phenomena.
In minimally twisted bilayer graphene, a moir{e} pattern consisting of AB and BA stacking regions separated by domain walls forms. These domain walls are predicted to support counterpropogating topologically protected helical (TPH) edge states when the AB and BA regions are gapped. We fabricate designer moir{e} crystals with wavelengths longer than 50 nm and demonstrate the emergence of TPH states on the domain wall network by scanning tunneling spectroscopy measurements. We observe a double-line profile of the TPH states on the domain walls, only occurring when the AB and BA regions are gapped. Our results demonstrate a practical and flexible method for TPH state network construction.
The search for topological insulators has been actively promoted in the field of condensed matter physics for further development in energy-efficient information transmission and processing. In this context, recent studies have revealed that not only electrons but also bosonic particles such as magnons can construct edge states carrying nontrivial topological invariants. Here we demonstrate topological triplon bands in the spin-1/2 two-dimensional dimerized quantum antiferromagnet Ba$_2$CuSi$_2$O$_6$Cl$_2$, which is closely related to a pseudo-one-dimensional variant of the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model, through inelastic neutron scattering experiments. The excitation spectrum exhibits two triplon bands and a clear band gap between them due to a small alternation in interdimer exchange interactions along the $a$-direction, which is consistent with the crystal structure. The presence of topologically protected edge states is indicated by a bipartite nature of the lattice.