Simulating Floquet topological phases in static systems

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Abstract

We show that scattering from the boundary of static, higher-order topological insulators (HOTIs) can be used to simulate the behavior of (time-periodic) Floquet topological insulators. We consider D-dimensional HOTIs with gapless corner states which are weakly probed by external waves in a scattering setup. We find that the unitary reflection matrix describing back-scattering from the boundary of the HOTI is topologically equivalent to a (D - 1)-dimensional nontrivial Floquet operator. To characterize the topology of the reflection matrix, we introduce the concept of ‘nested’ scattering matrices. Our results provide a route to engineer topological Floquet systems in the lab without the need for external driving. As benefit, the topological system does not suffer from decoherence and heating.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number007
JournalSciPost Physics Core
Volume4
Issue number2
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2021
Peer-reviewedYes