Arbitrarily configurable nonlinear topological modes

Abstract

Topological modes (TMs) are typically localized at boundaries, interfaces and dislocations, and exponentially decay into the bulk of a large enough lattice. Recently, the non-Hermitian skin effect has been leveraged to delocalize the wavefunctions of TMs from the boundary and thus to increase the capacity of TMs dramatically. Here, we explore the capability of nonlinearity in designing and reconfiguring the wavefunctions of TMs. With growing intensity, wavefunctions of these in-gap nonlinear TMs undergo an initial deviation from exponential decay, gradually merge into arbitrarily designable plateaus, then encompass the entire nonlinear domain, and eventually concentrate at the nonlinear boundary. Intriguingly, such extended nonlinear TMs are still robust against defects and disorders, and stable in dynamics under external excitation. Advancing the conceptual understanding of the nonlinear TMs, our results open new avenues for increasing the capacity of TMs and developing compact and reconfigurable topological devices.