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Updated: Mar 30, 2026

High Resolution Phonon-assisted Quasi-resonance Fluorescence Spectroscopy
Published on: June 28, 2016
Detecting Band Inversions by Measuring the Environment: Fingerprints of Electronic Band Topology in Bulk Phonon
Kush Saha1, Katherine Légaré1, Ion Garate1
1Département de Physique and Regroupement Québécois sur les Matériaux de Pointe, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada J1K 2R1.
Abstract:
The interplay between topological phases of matter and dissipative baths constitutes an emergent research topic with links to condensed matter, photonic crystals, cold atomic gases, and quantum information. While recent studies suggest that dissipative baths can induce topological phases in intrinsically trivial quantum materials, the backaction of topological invariants on dissipative baths is overlooked. By exploring this backaction for a centrosymmetric Dirac insulator coupled to phonons, we show that the linewidths of bulk optical phonons can reveal electronic band inversions. This result is the first known example where topological phases of an open quantum system may be detected by measuring the bulk properties of the surrounding environment.
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