Model for Topological Phononics and Phonon Diode

TL;DR

This paper introduces a topological phononic model inspired by the Haldane model, enabling dissipationless phonon transport and the design of efficient phononic devices like a phonon diode.

Contribution

It derives a Schrödinger-like equation for phonons incorporating topological properties and proposes a phononic analog of the Haldane model for one-way edge phonon states.

Findings

Topologically nontrivial phonon states with one-way edge modes

Proposal of a phonon diode based on topological phononics

Potential for dissipationless phonon conduction

Abstract

The quantum anomalous Hall effect, an exotic topological state first theoretically predicted by Haldane and recently experimentally observed, has attracted enormous interest for low-power-consumption electronics. In this work, we derived a Schr{\"o}dinger-like equation of phonons, where topology-related quantities, time reversal symmetry and its breaking can be naturally introduced similar as for electrons. Furthermore, we proposed a phononic analog of the Haldane model, which gives the novel quantum (anomalous) Hall-like phonon states characterized by one-way gapless edge modes immune to scattering. The topologically nontrivial phonon states are useful not only for conducting phonons without dissipation but also for designing highly efficient phononic devices, like an ideal phonon diode, which could find important applications in future phononics.