Effect of loss on the topological features of dimer chain described by the extended Aubry-Andr\'e-Harper model

Abstract

By introducing loss to one sublattice of a dimer chain described by the extended Aubry-Andr\'e or Harper (AAH) model, we study the topological features including the edge states, spectrum and winding number of the chain. We find that the parameter region for the system to have real band-gap-closing is increased due to the loss, and the average displacement of the single excitation can still witness the topological features of the chain in the presence of loss. The robustness of the zero energy eigenstate against four kinds of disorders is also examined. A feasible experiment setup based on coupled waveguides to observe the prediction of this paper is proposed.