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research article

Superior robustness of anomalous non-reciprocal topological edge states

Zhang, Zhe  
•
Delplace, Pierre
•
Fleury, Romain  
October 13, 2021
Nature

Robustness against disorder and defects is a pivotal advantage of topological systems, manifested by the absence of electronic backscattering in the quantum-Hall and spin-Hall effects, and by unidirectional waveguiding in their classical analogues. Two-dimensional (2D) topological insulators, in particular, provide unprecedented opportunities in a variety of fields owing to their compact planar geometries, which are compatible with the fabrication technologies used in modern electronics and photonics. Among all 2D topological phases, Chern insulators are currently the most reliable designs owing to the genuine backscattering immunity of their non-reciprocal edge modes, brought via time-reversal symmetry breaking. Yet such resistance to fabrication tolerances is limited to fluctuations of the same order of magnitude as their bandgap, limiting their resilience to small perturbations only. Here we investigate the robustness problem in a system where edge transmission can survive disorder levels with strengths arbitrarily larger than the bandgap—an anomalous non-reciprocal topological network. We explore the general conditions needed to obtain such an unusual effect in systems made of unitary three-port non-reciprocal scatterers connected by phase links, and establish the superior robustness of anomalous edge transmission modes over Chern ones to phase-link disorder of arbitrarily large values. We confirm experimentally the exceptional resilience of the anomalous phase, and demonstrate its operation in various arbitrarily shaped disordered multi-port prototypes. Our results pave the way to efficient, arbitrary planar energy transport on 2D substrates for wave devices with full protection against large fabrication flaws or imperfections.

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Type
research article
DOI
10.1038/s41586-021-03868-7
Author(s)
Zhang, Zhe  
Delplace, Pierre
Fleury, Romain  
Date Issued

2021-10-13

Published in
Nature
Volume

598

Start page

293

End page

297

Subjects

Topological insulators

•

Floquet topology

•

Unitary systems

•

Scattering networks

•

Eulerian graphs

•

Microwaves

•

Non-reciprocity

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
LWE  
FunderGrant Number

FNS

181232

Available on Infoscience
October 13, 2021
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/182149
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