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Gap solitons in a one-dimensional driven-dissipative topological lattice

Nature Physics volume 18, pages 678–684 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

Nonlinear topological photonics is an emerging field that aims to extend the fascinating properties of topological states to a regime where interactions between the system constituents cannot be neglected. Interactions can trigger topological phase transitions, induce symmetry protection and robustness properties for the many-body system. Here, we report the nonlinear response of a polariton lattice that implements a driven-dissipative version of the Su–Schrieffer–Heeger model. We first demonstrate the formation of topological gap solitons bifurcating from a linear topological edge state. We then focus on the formation of gap solitons in the bulk of the lattice and show that they exhibit robust nonlinear properties against defects, owing to the underlying sublattice symmetry. Leveraging the driven-dissipative nature of the system, we discover a class of bulk gap solitons with high sublattice polarization. We show that these solitons provide an all-optical way to create a non-trivial interface for Bogoliubov excitations. Our results show that coherent driving can be exploited to stabilize new nonlinear phases and establish dissipatively stabilized solitons as a powerful resource for topological photonics.

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Fig. 1: Implementation of the SSH lattice.
Fig. 2: Generation of topological gap solitons.
Fig. 3: Robustness of gap solitons against a defect.
Fig. 4: Spin-polarized solitons.

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Source data are provided with this paper. All other data that support the plots within this paper and other findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank I. Carusotto for fruitful discussions. This work was supported by the Paris Ile-de-France Région in the framework of DIM SIRTEQ (J.B.), the Marie Skłodowska-Curie individual fellowship ToPol (P.St-J.), the H2020-FETFLAG project PhoQus (820392) (J.B. and A.A.), the QUANTERA project Interpol (ANR-QUAN-0003-05) (J.B.), the French National Research Agency project Quantum Fluids of Light (ANR-16-CE30-0021) (G.M. and J.B.), European Research Council via projects EmergenTopo (865151) (A.A.) and ARQADIA (949730) (S.R.), the French RENATECH network, the French government through the Programme Investissement d’Avenir (I-SITE ULNE/ANR-16-IDEX-0004 ULNE) (G.M. and D.D.S.) and IDEX-ISITE initiative 16-IDEX-0001 (CAP 20-25), managed by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche, the Labex CEMPI (ANR-11-LABX-0007) (A.A.).

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  1. These authors contributed equally: N. Pernet, P. St-Jean.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, Centre de Nanosciences et de Nanotechnologies (C2N), Palaiseau, France

    Nicolas Pernet, Philippe St-Jean, Nicola Carlon Zambon, Quentin Fontaine, Aristide Lemaître, Martina Morassi, Luc Le Gratiet, Téo Baptiste, Abdelmounaim Harouri, Isabelle Sagnes, Sylvain Ravets & Jacqueline Bloch

  2. Institut Pascal, PHOTON-N2, Université Clermont Auvergne, CNRS, SIGMA Clermont, Clermont-Ferrand, France

    Dmitry D. Solnyshkov & Guillaume Malpuech

  3. Institut Universitaire de France (IUF), Paris, France

    Dmitry D. Solnyshkov

  4. Université de Lille, CNRS, Laboratoire de Physique des Lasers Atomes et Molécules (PhLAM), Lille, France

    Bastian Real, Omar Jamadi & Alberto Amo

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Contributions

N.P. and P.St-J. performed the experiments and analysed the data. N.P. performed the initial theoretical modelling of the experiments using the tight-binding approach, which led to the discovery of spin-polarized topological solitons. D.D.S. and G.M. provided the theoretical guidance and performed the theoretical calculations in the 1D continuous model. N.P., P.St-J., D.D.S., G.M, N.C.Z., Q.F., B.R., O.J., A.A., S.R. and J.B. participated in the scientific discussions. N.P., P.St-J., D.D.S., G.M., A.A., S.R. and J.B. wrote the manuscript. N.C.Z., Q.F. and B.R. contributed to the editing of the manuscript. P.St-J., S.R., J.B. and A.A. designed the sample. A.L., L.L.G., T.B., A.H. and I.S. fabricated the samples. A.A., S.R. and J.B. supervised the work.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jacqueline Bloch.

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Supplementary Sections 1–9 and Figs. 1–10.

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Source Data Fig. 1

Processed data of the Cartesian plots in Fig. 1.

Source Data Fig. 2

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Source Data Fig. 3

Processed data of the Cartesian plots in Fig. 3.

Source Data Fig. 4

Processed data of the Cartesian plots in Fig. 4.

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Pernet, N., St-Jean, P., Solnyshkov, D.D. et al. Gap solitons in a one-dimensional driven-dissipative topological lattice. Nat. Phys. 18, 678–684 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-022-01599-8

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