Higher-order topological pumping

Abstract

The discovery of the quantization of particle transport in adiabatic pumping cycles of periodic structures by Thouless [Thouless D. J., Phys. Rev. B 27, 6083 (1983)] linked the Chern number, a topological invariant characterizing the quantum Hall effect in two-dimensional electron gases, with the topology of dynamical periodic systems in one dimension. Here, we demonstrate its counterpart for higher-order topology. Specifically, we show that adiabatic cycles in two-dimensional crystals with vanishing dipole moments (and therefore zero `particle transport') can nevertheless be topologically nontrivial. These cycles are associated with higher-order topology and can be diagnosed by their ability to produce corner-to-corner transport in certain metamaterial platforms. We experimentally verify this transport by using an array of photonic waveguides modulated in their separations and refractive indices. By mapping the dynamical phenomenon demonstrated here from two spatial and one temporal to three spatial dimensions, this transport is equivalent to the observation of the chiral nature of the gapless hinge states in a three-dimensional second-order topological insulator.Comment: Main text: 5 pages, 3 figures. Supp. Info: 8 pages, 5 figure