Direct extraction of topological Zak phase with the synthetic dimension

Measuring topological invariants is an essential task in characterizing topological phases of matter. They are usually obtained from the number of edge states due to the bulk-edge correspondence or from interference since they are integrals of the geometric phases in the energy band. It is commonly believed that the bulk band structures could not be directly used to obtain the topological invariants. Here, we implement the experimental extraction of Zak phase from the bulk band structures of a Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model in the synthetic frequency dimension. Such synthetic SSH lattices are constructed in the frequency axis of light, by controlling the coupling strengths between the symmetric and antisymmetric supermodes of two bichromatically driven rings. We measure the transmission spectra and obtain the projection of the time-resolved band structure on lattice sites, where a strong contrast between the non-trivial and trivial topological phases is observed. The topological Zak phase is naturally encoded in the bulk band structures of the synthetic SSH lattices, which can hence be experimentally extracted from the transmission spectra in a fiber-based modulated ring platform using a laser with telecom wavelength. Our method of extracting topological phases from the bulk band structure can be further extended to characterize topological invariants in higher dimensions, while the exhibited trivial and non-trivial transmission spectra from the topological transition may find future applications in optical communications.

Automated summary

Measuring topological invariants is important for characterizing topological phases, but it is believed that bulk band structures cannot directly provide these invariants. In this study, we experimentally extract the Zak phase from the bulk band structures of a synthetic Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) lattice in the frequency dimension. By controlling the coupling strengths between symmetric and antisymmetric supermodes of two bichromatically driven rings, we observe a clear contrast between the non-trivial and trivial topological phases in the transmission spectra. Our method can be extended to higher dimensions and may have future applications in optical communications.