Observation of exceptional points and skin effect correspondence in non-Hermitian phononic crystals

Abstract

Exceptional points and skin effect, as the two distinct hallmark features unique to the non-Hermitian physics, have each attracted enormous interests. Recent theoretical works reveal that the topologically nontrivial exceptional points can give rise to the non-Hermitian skin effect, which is geometry-dependent. However, this kind of novel correspondence between the exceptional points and skin effect remains to be confirmed by experiments. Here, we corroborate the correspondence in a non-Hermitian phononic crystal. The exceptional points connected by the bulk Fermi arcs, and the skin effects with the geometry dependence, are evidenced in simulations and experiments. Our work, building an experimental bridge between the exceptional points and skin effect and uncovering the unconventional geometry-dependent skin effect, expands a horizon in non-Hermitian physics.