Phononic Weyl pair, phononic Weyl complex, phononic real Chern insulator state, and phononic corner modes in 2D Kekulé-order graphene

Abstract

The conceptual framework of topological states has recently been extended to bosonic systems, particularly phononic systems. In this work, we chose the recently experimentally prepared two-dimensional (2D) Kekulé-order graphene as a target to propose the coexistence of gapless and gapped topological phonon states in its phonon curves. This is the first work to investigate rich gapped and gapless topological phonon states in experimentally feasible 2D materials. For the gapped topological phonons, 2D Kekulé-order graphene hosts phononic real Chern insulator states, i.e., second-order topological states, and corner vibrational modes inside frequency gaps at 27.96 and 37.065 THz. For the gapless topological phonons, 2D Kekulé-order graphene hosts a phononic Weyl pair [comprising two linear Weyl points (LWPs)] and a phononic Weyl complex [comprising one quadratic nodal point (QNP) and two LWPs] around 7.54 and 47.3 THz (39.2 THz), respectively. Moreover, the difference between the phononic Weyl pair and the phononic Weyl complex was investigated in detail. Our study not only promotes 2D Kekulé-order graphene as a concrete material platform for exploring the intriguing physics of phononic second-order topology but also proposes the coexistence of different categories of Weyl phonons, i.e., a Weyl complex that comprises two LWPs and one QNP, in two dimensions. Our work paves the way for new advancements in topological phononics comprising gapless and gapped topological phonons.