Entangled four-dimensional multicomponent topological states from photonic crystal defects

Abstract

Recently, there has been a drive towards the realization of topological phases beyond conventional electronic materials, including phases defined in more than three dimensions. We propose a versatile and experimentally realistic approach of realizing a large variety of multi-component topological phases in 2D photonic crystals with quasi-periodically modulated defects. With a length scale introduced by a background resonator lattice, the defects are found to host various effective orbitals of $s$, $p$ and $d$-type symmetries, thus providing a monolithic platform for realizing multi-component topological states without requiring separate internal degrees of freedom in the physical setup. Notably, by coupling the defect modulations diagonally, we report the novel realization of an ``entangled'' 4D QH phase which cannot be factorized into two copies of 2D QH phases, each described by the 1st Chern number. The structure of this non-factorizability can be quantified by a classical entanglement entropy inspired by quantum information theory. In another embodiment, we present 4D p-orbital nodal lines in a nonsymmorphic photonic lattice, hosting boundary states with an exotic manifold. Our simple and versatile approach holds the promise of novel topological optoelectronic and photonic applications such as one-way optical fibers.