Topological Spin Texture of Chiral Edge States in Photonic Two-Dimensional Quantum Walks

Chen，Chao1,2,3; Ding，Xing1,2; Qin，Jian1,2; Wu，Jizhou1,2; He，Yu4; Lu，Chao Yang1,2; Li，Li1,2; Liu，Xiong Jun4,5,6; Sanders，Barry C.1,2,7; Pan，Jian Wei1,2

2022-07-22

10.1103/PhysRevLett.129.046401

PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS   Impact Factor & Quartile

0031-9007

1079-7114

Topological insulators host topology-linked boundary states, whose spin and charge degrees of freedom could be exploited to design topological devices with enhanced functionality. We experimentally observe that dissipationless chiral edge states in a spin-orbit coupled anomalous Floquet topological phase exhibit topological spin texture on boundaries, realized via a two-dimensional quantum walk. Our experiment shows that, for a walker traveling around a closed loop along the boundary in real space, its spin evolves and winds through a great circle on the Bloch sphere, which implies that edge-spin texture has nontrivial winding. This topological spin winding is protected by a chiral-like symmetry emerging for the low-energy Hamiltonian. Our experiment confirms that two-dimensional anomalous Floquet topological systems exhibit topological spin texture on the boundary, which could inspire novel topology-based spintronic phenomena and devices.

SCI

English

NI Journal Papers

Others

National Key R&D Program of China[2021YFA1400900] ; National Natural Science Foundation of China["11825401","11675164","11921005"] ; Open Project of Shenzhen Institute of Quantum Science and Engineering[SIQSE202003] ; Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Science[XDB28000000]

Physics

Physics, Multidisciplinary

WOS:000839558300004

AMER PHYSICAL SOC

PHYSICS

2-s2.0-85135550835

Scopus

1.Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale and Department of Modern Physics,University of Science and Technology of China,Shanghai Branch,201315,China
2.CAS-Alibaba Quantum Computing Laboratory,CAS Centre for Excellence in Quantum Information and Quantum Physics,201315,China
3.National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures,School of Physics,Nanjing University,Nanjing,210093,China
4.Shenzhen Institute for Quantum Science and Engineering,Southern University of Science and Technology,Shenzhen,518055,China
5.International Center for Quantum Materials and School of Physics,Peking University,100871,China
6.CAS Center for Excellence in Topological Quantum Computation,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences,100190,China
7.Institute for Quantum Science and Technology,University of Calgary,T2N 1N4,Canada

Chen，Chao,Ding，Xing,Qin，Jian,et al. Topological Spin Texture of Chiral Edge States in Photonic Two-Dimensional Quantum Walks[J]. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS,2022,129(4).

Chen，Chao.,Ding，Xing.,Qin，Jian.,Wu，Jizhou.,He，Yu.,...&Pan，Jian Wei.(2022).Topological Spin Texture of Chiral Edge States in Photonic Two-Dimensional Quantum Walks.PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS,129(4).

Chen，Chao,et al."Topological Spin Texture of Chiral Edge States in Photonic Two-Dimensional Quantum Walks".PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 129.4(2022).