Pseudospin-Induced Asymmetric Field in Non-Hermitian Photonic Crystals with Multiple Topological Transitions

Abstract

We report the discovery of multiple topological phase transitions induced by the photonic quantum spin Hall effect (PQSHE) in a non-Hermitian photonic crystal (PhC). When increasing the magnitude of the non-Hermitian terms, the system undergoes transitions from topological corner states to topological edge states and subsequently to topological bulk states. The angular momentum of the wave function of the out-of-plane electric field excited by the chiral source acts as the pseudospin degree of freedom in the PQSHE. Therefore, we consider the introduction of chiral sources with different circular polarizations into non-Hermitian PhCs and observe the emergence of asymmetric field responses. These results are expected to enable the multi-dimensional manipulation of topological states, offering a new avenue for the detection of chiral sources.