Acoustic topological Anderson insulators

TL;DR

This paper reports the experimental discovery of a topological Anderson insulator in a 2D phononic crystal, demonstrating disorder-induced topological edge states protected by time-reversal symmetry, with potential applications in integrated devices.

Contribution

First experimental observation of a topological Anderson insulator in a phononic system with time-reversal symmetry, using disorder to induce topological edge states.

Findings

Robust spin-dependent edge states observed with on-site disorder

Spin Bott index confirms topological invariants in disordered system

Disorder can induce topological transport states in phononic crystals

Abstract

Recent breakthrough on topological Anderson insulators revealed the breakdown of the traditional perception that sufficiently strong disorder may induce the appearance of topological protected transport states instead of destruction. Although topological Anderson insulators have been observed in various time-reversal symmetry breaking systems, the observation of topological Anderson insulators protected by time-reversal symmetry remains scarce, which are considered to be more promising in applications such as the integrated devices. Here, we report the experimental observation of topological Anderson insulator in a two-dimensional bilayer phononic crystal. The robust spin-dependent edge states, as evidence of topological Anderson insulating phase, are observed by introducing on-site disorder. In addition, spin Bott index was computed to identify the topological invariants of the system with disorder, which confirmed the occurrence of disorder-induced topological state. Our results reveal that the impurities and defects introduced in the processing of integrated devices may induce the formation of topological transport states, which are promising for the exploration of new routes for the integration devices design.