Transport properties in the photonic super-honeycomb lattice - a hybrid fermionic and bosonic system

TL;DR

This paper investigates the transport properties of a hybrid super-honeycomb lattice combining features of honeycomb and Lieb lattices, revealing flat-band localization, Dirac cone diffraction, and pseudospin vortices in a photonic system.

Contribution

It introduces a novel super-honeycomb lattice model that exhibits unique fermionic and bosonic hybrid properties, with detailed analysis of its transport phenomena and mode excitations.

Findings

Flat-band modes cause strong localization during propagation.

Dirac cone modes lead to conical diffraction patterns.

Pseudospin modes generate vortices observable via interference patterns.

Abstract

We report on transport properties of the super-honeycomb lattice, the band structure of which possesses a flat band and Dirac cones, according to the tight-binding approximation. This super-honeycomb model combines the honeycomb lattice and the Lieb lattice and displays the properties of both. The super-honeycomb lattice also represents a hybrid fermionic and bosonic system, which is rarely seen in nature. By choosing the phases of input beams properly, the flat-band mode of the super-honeycomb will be excited and the input beams will exhibit strong localization during propagation. On the other hand, if the modes of Dirac cones of the super-honeycomb lattice are excited, one will observe conical diffraction. Furthermore, if the input beam is properly chosen to excite a sublattice of the super-honeycomb lattice and the modes of Dirac cones with different pseudospins, e.g., the three-beam interference pattern, the pseudospin-mediated vortices will be observed.