A research team led by Professor Su Shilei from the School of Physics at Zhengzhou University (ZZU) has made significant progress in the field of topological photon pumping. The study experimentally demonstrated a superadiabatic topological pumping scheme on a photonic chip, offering a novel approach to developing efficient, compact, and scalable topological photonic devices.
Illustration of SUAD topological pumping in modulated photonic waveguides. [Photo/zzu.edu.cn]
Topological photonics provides a robust mechanism for on-chip light field control. While topological pumping technology holds promise for reconfigurable integrated photonic devices due to its inherent topological protection, traditional adiabatic methods are limited by slow modulation processes and face challenges in balancing high efficiency with small device size.
To overcome this, the team proposed a shortcut-to-adiabaticity strategy based on bandgap modes. By introducing a counter-diabatic driving term into the Hamiltonian, the team constructed an evolution path that achieves high-fidelity topological transport without requiring next-nearest-neighbor or imaginary coupling, using only physically tunable parameters.
Acceleration performance of SUAD topological pumping. [Photo/zzu.edu.cn]
Experimentally, a Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model waveguide array was fabricated using femtosecond laser direct writing. The scheme successfully enabled highly efficient edge state pumping within a compact device length of only 40 mm — 20 times shorter than traditional adiabatic pumps and 50 percent more compact than optimized schemes like Landau-Zener. The device also exhibited broadband performance and showcased excellent wavelength robustness and scalability for multi-port integration.
Published in journal Nature Communications under the title "Superadiabatic topological pumping on photonic chips", the research features co-first authors Wu Jinlei from ZZU, Xiao Kaiheng from Jilin University, and Ni Xiang from Central South University, with ZZU's School of Physics as the primary affiliation.
Broadband and scalable performances of SUAD topological pumping. [Photo/zzu.edu.cn]