Effective medium perspective on topological transitions in metamaterials

Abstract

Many properties of photonic structures rely on band topology characterized by the integer invariants that can change during the topological transitions and give rise to the disorder-robust topological edge, corner, or interface states. Typically, the periods of such structures are comparable to the wavelength. However, in many cases, the unit cell becomes deeply subwavelength and hence the entire metamaterial can be described in terms of the effective material parameters. Here, focusing on subwavelength topological metamaterials, we identify the behavior of permittivity and permeability accompanying the topological transition on the example of the two structures possessing D6 symmetry.