Stochastic non-Hermitian skin effect

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that stochastic fluctuations in symmetric non-Hermitian lattices can induce a skin effect, leading to unidirectional light transport and stochastic funneling of light toward an interface.

Contribution

It introduces a novel mechanism where stochastic fluctuations induce a non-Hermitian skin effect in symmetric lattices, expanding understanding of non-Hermitian photonic transport.

Findings

Stochastic fluctuations can induce a non-Hermitian skin effect.

Light can be directed toward an interface via stochastic funneling.

The effect occurs even with symmetric average hopping.

Abstract

A hallmark of photonic transport in non-Hermitian lattices with asymmetric hopping is the robust unidirectional flow of light, which is responsible for important phenomena such as the non-Hermitian skin effect. Here we show that the same effect can be induced by stochastic fluctuations in lattices which maintain a symmetric hopping on average. We illustrate such a fluctuation-induced non-Hermitian transport by discussing stochastic funneling of light, in which light is pushed toward an interface by the stochastic-induced skin effect.