Topological Phase Transition of A Non-Hermitian Crosslinked Chain

Abstract: Non-Hermiticity enriches the contents of topological classification of matter including exceptional points, bulk-edge correspondence and skin effect. Gain and loss can be described by imaginary diagonal elements in Hamiltonians and the topological phase transition for a crosslinked chain in the presence of such non-Hermiticity is investigated in this work. We obtain the phase diagram in term of a winding number analytically. The boundaries of the phases coincide with the surfaces of exceptional points in the parameter space. The topologically original edge states locating mainly at the joints between domains of different phases hold on even for the long chain. The non-Hermitian topological feature can also be reflected by vortex structures in the vector fields of complex eigenenergies and expected values of Pauli matrices or the trajectories of these quantities. This model can be implemented in coupled waveguides or photonic crystals. And the edge states are immune to various kinds of disorders until the topological phase transition occurs. This work benefits our insight into the influence of gain and loss on the topological phase of matter.