Topological phases and Anderson localization in off-diagonal mosaic lattices

Abstract: We introduce a one-dimensional lattice model whose hopping amplitudes are modulated for equally spaced sites. Such mosaic lattice exhibits many interesting topological and localization phenomena that do not exist in the regular off-diagonal lattices. When the mosaic modulation is commensurate with the underlying lattice, topologically nontrivial phases with zero- and nonzero-energy edge modes are observed as we tune the modulation, where the nontrivial regimes are characterized by quantized Berry phases. If the mosaic lattice becomes incommensurate, Anderson localization will be induced purely by the quasiperiodic off-diagonal modulations. The localized eigenstate is found to be centered on two neighboring sites connected by the quasiperiodic hopping terms. Furthermore, both the commensurate and incommensurate off-diagonal mosaic lattices can host Chern insulators in their two-dimensional generalizations. Our work provides a platform for exploring topological phases and Anderson localization in low-dimensional systems.