Exact Mobility Edges and Topological Phase Transition in Two-Dimensional non-Hermitian Quasicrystals

Abstract: The emergence of the mobility edge (ME) has been recognized as an important characteristic of Anderson localization. The difficulty in understanding the physics of the MEs in three-dimensional (3D) systems from a microscopic image encourages the development of models in lower-dimensional systems that have exact MEs. While most of the previous studies are concerned with one-dimensional (1D) quasiperiodic systems, the analytic results that allow for an accurate understanding of two-dimensional (2D) cases are rare. In this work, we disclose an exactly solvable 2D quasicrystal model with parity-time ($\mathcal{PT}$) symmetry displaying exact MEs. In the thermodynamic limit, we unveil that the extended-localized transition point, observed at the $\mathcal{PT}$ symmetry breaking point, is topologically characterized by a hidden winding number defined in the dual space. The coupling waveguide platform can be used to realize the 2D non-Hermitian quasicrystal model, and the excitation dynamics can be used to detect the localization features.