Topological reflection matrix

S. Franca, F. Hassler, and I. C. Fulga
Phys. Rev. B 105, 155121 – Published 13 April 2022
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Abstract

While periodically driven phases offer a unique insight into nonequilibrium topology that is richer than its static counterpart, their experimental realization is often hindered by ubiquitous decoherence effects. Recently, we have proposed a decoherence-free approach of realizing these Floquet phases. The central insight is that the reflection matrix, being unitary for a bulk insulator, plays the role of a Floquet time-evolution operator. We have shown that reflection processes off the boundaries of systems supporting higher-order topological phases (HOTPs) simulate nontrivial Floquet phases. So far, this method was shown to work for one-dimensional Floquet topological phases protected by local symmetries. Here, we extend the range of applicability by studying reflection off three-dimensional HOTPs with corner and hinge modes. We show that the reflection processes can simulate both first-order and second-order Floquet phases, protected by a combination of local and spatial symmetries. For every phase, we discuss appropriate topological invariants calculated with the nested scattering matrix method.

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  • Received 20 September 2021
  • Revised 20 January 2022
  • Accepted 1 April 2022

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.105.155121

©2022 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

S. Franca1, F. Hassler2, and I. C. Fulga1

  • 1IFW Dresden and Würzburg-Dresden Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat, Helmholtzstraße 20, 01069 Dresden, Germany
  • 2JARA-Institute for Quantum Information, RWTH Aachen University, 52056 Aachen, Germany

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Issue

Vol. 105, Iss. 15 — 15 April 2022

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