Su-Schrieffer-Heeger chain with one pair of PT-symmetric defects

Abstract

The topologically nontrivial edge states induce PT transition in Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) chain with one pair of gain and loss at boundaries. In this study, we investigated a pair of PT-symmetric defects located inside the SSH chain, in particular, the defects locations are at the chain centre. The PT symmetry breaking of the bound states leads to the PT transition, the PT-symmetric phases and the localized states were studied. In the broken PT-symmetric phase, all energy levels break simultaneously in topologically trivial phase; however, two edge states in topologically nontrivial phase are free from the influence of the PT-symmetric defects. We discovered PT-symmetric bound states induced by the PT-symmetric local defects at the SSH chain centre. The PT-symmetric bound states significantly increase the PT transition threshold and coalesce to the topologically protected zero mode with vanishing probabilities on every other site of the left-half chain and the right-half chain, respectively.