Configurable Phase Transitions in a Topological Thermal Material

Guoqiang Xu, Ying Li, Wei Li, Shanhui Fan, and Cheng-Wei Qiu

Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 105901 – Published 31 August 2021

Abstract

Diffusive nature of thermal transportation fundamentally restricts topological characteristics due to the absence of a sufficient parametric space with complex dimensionalities. Here, we create an orthogonal advection space with two advective pairs to reveal the unexplored topological transitions in thermal material. We demonstrate four types of configurable thermal phases, including the nontrivial dynamic-equilibrium distribution, nonchiral steplike $π$ -phase transition, and another two trivial profiles related to the anti-parity-time symmetry nature. Our findings provide a recipe for realizing a topologically robust thermal system under arbitrary perturbations.

Received 3 February 2021
Accepted 21 June 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.105901

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Diffusion Heat transfer Topological insulators Topological phase transition

Metamaterials Topological materials

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied PhysicsGeneral Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Guoqiang Xu¹, Ying Li^2,3, Wei Li ⁴, Shanhui Fan⁵, and Cheng-Wei Qiu ^1,*

¹Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Kent Ridge 117583, Republic of Singapore
²Interdisciplinary Center for Quantum Information, State Key Laboratory of Modern Optical Instrumentation, ZJU-Hangzhou Global Scientific and Technological Innovation Center, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
³International Joint Innovation Center, Key Lab. of Advanced Micro/Nano Electronic Devices & Smart Systems of Zhejiang, The Electromagnetics Academy at Zhejiang University, Zhejiang University, Haining 314400, China
⁴GPL Photonics Laboratory, State Key Laboratory of Applied Optics, Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130033, China
⁵Department of Electrical Engineering, and Ginzton Laboratory, Stanford University, Stanford, California, 94305, USA

^*chengwei.qiu@nus.edu.sg

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Vol. 127, Iss. 10 — 3 September 2021

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