No Arabic abstract
The sharply quantized transport observed in the integer quantum Hall effect can be explained via a simple one-dimensional model with a time-periodic, adiabatically varying potential in which electronic charge is pumped from one side of the system to the other. This so-called `Thouless pump captures the topological physics of the quantum Hall effect using the notion of dimensional reduction: The time-varying potential mathematically maps onto a momentum coordinate in a conceptual second dimension. Importantly, this assumes an electronic system in equilibrium and in its ground state, that is, with uniformly filled bands below a Fermi energy. Here, we theoretically propose and experimentally demonstrate quantized nonlinear Thouless pumping of photons with a band that is decidedly not uniformly occupied. In our system, nonlinearity acts to quantize transport via soliton formation and spontaneous symmetry breaking bifurcations. Quantization follows from the fact that the instantaneous soliton solutions centered upon a given unit cell are identical after each pump cycle, up to translation invariance; this is an entirely different mechanism from traditional Thouless pumping of fermions in equilibrium. Our result shows that nonlinearity and interparticle interactions can induce quantized transport and topological behavior even where the linear limit does not.
Quantum pumping, in its different forms, is attracting attention from different fields, from fundamental quantum mechanics, to nanotechnology, to superconductivity. We investigate the crossover of quantum pumping from the adiabatic to the anti-adiabatic regime in the presence of dissipation, and find general and explicit analytical expressions for the pumped current in a minimal model describing a system with the topology of a ring forced by a periodic modulation of frequency omega. The solution allows following in a transparent way the evolution of pumped DC current from much smaller to much larger omega values than the other relevant energy scale, the energy splitting introduced by the modulation. We find and characterize a temperature-dependent optimal value of the frequency for which the pumped current is maximal.
We propose a two-dimensional (2D) version of Thouless pumping that can be realized by using ultracold atoms in optical lattices. To be specific, we consider a 2D square lattice tight-binding model with an obliquely introduced superlattice. It is demonstrated that quantized particle transport occurs in this system, and that the transport is expressed as a solution of a Diophantine equation. This topological nature can be understood by mapping the Hamiltonian to a three-dimensional (3D) cubic lattice model with a homogeneous magnetic field. We also propose a continuum model with obliquely introduced superlattice and obtain the amount of pumping by calculating the Berry curvature. For this model, the same Diophantine equation can be derived from the plane-wave approximation. Furthermore, we investigate the effect of a harmonic trap by solving the time-dependent Schrodinger equation. Under a harmonic trap potential, as often used in cold atom experiments, we show, by numerical simulations, that nearly quantized pumping occurs when the phase of the superlattice potential is driven at a moderate speed. Also, we find that two regions appear, the Hofstadter region and the rectifying region, depending on the modulation amplitude of the superlattice potential. In the rectifying region with larger modulation amplitudes, we uncover that the pumping direction is restricted to exactly the $x$-axis or the $y$-axis direction. This difference in these two regions causes a crossover behavior, characterizing the effect of the harmonic trap.
In Thouless pumping, although non-flat band has no effects on the quantization of particle transport, it induces wave-packet dispersion which hinders the practical applications of Thouless pumping. Indeed, we find that the dispersion mainly arises from the dynamical phase difference between individual Bloch states. Here we propose two efficient schemes to suppress the dispersion in Thouless pumping: a re-localization echo protocol and a high-order tunneling suppression protocol. In the re-localization echo protocol, we reverse the Hamiltonian in the second pumping cycle to cancel the dynamical phase difference arising from non-flat band, so that the dispersed wave-packet becomes re-localized. In the high-order tunneling suppression protocol, we modulate the nearest-neighbor tunneling to make the Bloch band more flat and suppress the high-order tunneling which causes wave-packet dispersion. Our study paves a way toward the dispersionless Thouless pumping for practical applications in matter transport, state transfer and quantum communication.
We introduce the concept of nonlinear graphene metasurfaces employing the controllable interaction between a graphene layer and a planar metamaterial. Such hybrid metasurfaces support two types of subradiant resonant modes, asymmetric modes of structured metamaterial elements (metamolecules) and graphene plasmons exhibiting strong mutual coupling and avoided dispersion crossing. High tunability of graphene plasmons facilitates strong interaction between the subradiant modes, modifying the spectral position and lifetime of the associated Fano resonances. We demonstrate that strong resonant interaction, combined with the subwavelength localization of plasmons, leads to the enhanced nonlinear response and high efficiency of the second-harmonic generation.
Nonlinear optical (NLO) responses of topological materials are under active research in recent years. Yet by far most studies focused on the bulk properties, whereas the surface effects and the difference between surface and bulk responses have not been systematically studied. In this work, we develop a generic Greens function framework to investigate the surface NLO properties of topological materials. The Greens function framework can naturally incorporate many body effects and can be easily extended to high order NLO responses. Using $rm T_d WTe_2$ as an example, we reveal that the surface can behave disparately from the bulk under light illumination. Remarkably, the shift and circular current on the surface can flow in opposite directions to that in the bulk. Moreover, the light induced spin current on the surface can be orders of magnitude stronger than that in the bulk. We also study the responses under inhomogeneous field and higher order NLO effect, which are all distinct on the surface. These anomalous surface NLO responses suggest that light can be a valuable tool for probing the surface states of topological materials, while on the other hand, the surface effects shall be prudently considered when investigating the optical properties of topological materials.