Non-Abelian charged nodal links in dielectric photonic crystal

TL;DR

This paper proposes dielectric photonic crystals that realize non-Abelian charged nodal links, enabling the study and control of complex topological degeneracies in photonic systems.

Contribution

It introduces a design scheme for dielectric photonic crystals with non-Abelian nodal links and analyzes their topological charges, advancing topological photonics research.

Findings

Design of double diamond photonic structures with nodal links

Analysis of non-Abelian topological charges in photonic bands

Potential for experimental observation of non-Abelian charges in dielectrics

Abstract

A nodal link is a special form of a line degeneracy (a nodal line) between adjacent bands in the momentum space of a three-dimensional topological crystal. Unlike nodal chains or knots, a nodal link consists of two or more mutually-linked rings that do not touch each other. Recent studies on non-Abelian band topology revealed that the topological charges of the nodal links can have the properties of quaternions. However, a photonic crystal that has a nodal link with non-Abelian charges has not been reported. Here, we propose dielectric photonic crystals in forms of double diamond structures which realize the nodal links in the momentum space. By examining the evolution of the eigenstate correlations along the closed loops which enclose the nodal line(s) of the links, their non-Abelian topological charges are also analyzed. The proposed design scheme and theoretical approach in this work will allow for experimental observation of photonic non-Abelian charges in purely dielectric materials and facilitate the control of the degeneracy in complex photonic structures.