Strongly Nonlinear Topological Phases of Cascaded Topoelectrical Circuits

Abstract

Circuits provide ideal platforms of topological phases and matter, yet the study of topological circuits in the strongly nonlinear regime, has been lacking. We propose and experimentally demonstrate strongly nonlinear topological phases and transitions in one-dimensional electrical circuits composed of nonlinear capacitors. Nonlinear topological interface modes arise on domain walls of the circuit lattices, whose topological phases are controlled by the amplitudes of nonlinear voltage waves. Experimentally measured topological transition amplitudes are in good agreement with those derived from nonlinear topological band theory. Our prototype paves the way towards flexible metamaterials with amplitude-controlled rich topological phases and is readily extendable to two and three-dimensional systems that allow novel applications.Comment: accepted by Frontiers of Physics, 18+9 pages, 4+3 figure