Re-entrant topological phase transition in a non-Hermitian quasiperiodic lattice

Abstract

We predict a re-entrant topological transition in a one dimensional non-Hermitian quasiperiodic lattice. By considering a non-Hermitian generalized Aubry-Andr\'e-Harper (AAH) model with quasiperiodic potential, we show that the system first undergoes a transition from the delocalized phase to the localized phase and then to the delocalized phase as a function of the hermiticity breaking parameter. This re-entrant delocalization-localization-delocalization transition in turn results in a re-entrant topological transition identified by associating the phases with spectral winding numbers. Moreover, we find that these two transitions occur through intermediate phases hosting both extended and localized states having real and imaginary energies, respectively. We find that these phases also possess non-trivial winding numbers which are different from that of the localized phase.