摘要
The current understanding of topological insulators and their classical wave analogs,such as photonic topological insulators,is mainly based on topological band theory.However,standard band theory does not apply to amorphous phases of matter,which are formed by non-crystalline lattices with no long-range positional order but only shortrange order,exhibiting unique phenomena such as the glass-to-liquid transition.Here,we experimentally investigate amorphous variants of a Chern number-based photonic topological insulator.By tuning the disorder strength in the lattice,we demonstrate that photonic topological edge states can persist into the amorphous regime prior to the glass-to-liquid transition.After the transition to a liquid-like lattice configuration,the signatures of topological edge states disappear.This interplay between topology and short-range order in amorphous lattices paves the way for new classes of non-crystalline topological photonic bandgap materials.
基金
supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China(Grant No.2016YFB1200100)
the program of the China Scholarships Council(No.201806075001)
sponsored by Singapore MOE Academic Research Fund Tier 3 Grant MOE2016-T3-1-006,Tier 1 Grants RG187/18 and RG174/16(S),and Tier 2 Grant MOE 2018-T2-1-022(S).
