Observation of Topological Phase Transitions in Photonic Quasicrystals

2012/11/30 by Mor Verbin, Oded Zilberberg, Yaacov E. Kraus +2 · 380 citations
Materials Science · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Algebraic structures and combinatorial models #Condensed matter physics #Fibonacci number #Gapless playback #Mathematics #Phase (matter) #Phase transition #Phason #Physics #Quantum #Quantum mechanics #Quasicrystal #Quasicrystal Structures and Properties #Topological Materials and Phenomena #Topological defect #Topological insulator #Topological order #Topology (electrical circuits) #cond-mat.mes-hall #physics.optics #quant-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.110.076403

published in Physical Review Letters 110(7), 076403 (American Physical Society) · 7 pages, 6 figures, 2 appendices

openalex publication_date 2013/02/14 · arxiv created 2013/02/15 · arxiv updated 2013/02/18 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

Topological insulators and topological superconductors are distinguished by their bulk phase transitions and gapless states at a sharp boundary with the vacuum. Quasicrystals have recently been found to be topologically nontrivial. In quasicrystals, the bulk phase transitions occur in the same manner as standard topological materials, but their boundary phenomena are more subtle. In this Letter we directly observe bulk phase transitions, using photonic quasicrystals, by constructing a smooth boundary between topologically distinct one-dimensional quasicrystals. Moreover, we use the same method to experimentally confirm the topological equivalence between the Harper and Fibonacci quasicrystals.

Citations

• Signatures of Majorana fermions in hybrid superconductor-semiconductor nanowire devices
• Discrete solitons in optics
• Berry’s phase for energy bands in solids
• Topological insulators and superconductors
• Quantized Hall Conductance in a Two-Dimensional Periodic Potential
• SimulatingZ2topological insulators with cold atoms in a one-dimensional optical lattice
• Critical and bicritical properties of Harper’s equation with next-nearest-neighbor coupling
• Topological Crystalline Insulators
• Topological Insulators

Cited by

• Family of self-dual quasicrystals with critical Phases
• Quasicrystalline Analogue of the Haldane Model
• Topological pumping over a photonic Fibonacci quasicrystal
• Localization and adiabatic pumping in a generalized Aubry-André-Harper model
• Topological Floquet interface states in optical fiber loops
• Atom-optics approach to studying transport phenomena
• Localization and Topology in Noncentrosymmetric Superconductors with Disorder
• Phonon mediated spin polarization in a one-dimensional Aubry-Andre-Harper chain

Related

• Topological States and Adiabatic Pumping in Quasicrystals
• Topological pumping over a photonic Fibonacci quasicrystal
• Observation of topological phases without crystalline counterparts
• Higher-order topological states in photonic Thue-Morse quasicrystals: quadrupole insulator and a new origin of corner states
• Higher-order topology in Fibonacci quasicrystals