Long-range-interacting topological photonic lattices breaking channel-bandwidth limit.

Area of Science:

• Topological photonics
• Complex network theory
• Wave systems

Background:

• Distinguishing complex networks and wave systems relies on long-range interactions.
• Photonics typically models wave phenomena with short-range, neighboring interactions.
• This limits the scope of conceptually possible photonic networks.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of substantial long-range interactions in topological photonics.
• To explore novel crystalline structures and their topological properties.
• To overcome the traditional limitations of neighboring interactions in photonic systems.

Main Methods:

• Modeling crystalline structures with long-range interactions as an overlapped lattice.
• Analyzing the realization of higher topological invariants.
• Assessing the maintenance of bandgap width in photonic topological insulators.

Main Results:

• A crystalline structure with long-range interactions (without neighboring ones) is interpreted as an overlapped lattice.
• Higher values of topological invariants are achieved while preserving bandgap width.
• The topology-bandgap tradeoff is broken, enabling multichannel signal processing.

Conclusions:

• The findings enable topologically protected multichannel signal processing with broad bandwidths.
• This research extends topological physics to network science.
• The results are achievable under practically accessible system parameters.