Topological Degeneracy Induced by Twisting

Abstract

In recent years, twisting has emerged as a new degree of freedom that plays an increasingly important role in Bloch bands of various physical systems. However, there is currently a lack of reports on the non-trivial physics of topological degeneracy in twisted systems. In this work, we investigated the intrinsic physical correlation between twisting and topological degeneracy. We found that twisting not only breaks the symmetry of the system but also introduces topological degeneracy that does not exist under the original symmetric system without twisting. Furthermore, the topological degeneracy can be easily tuned through twisting. This new twist-induced topological degeneracy gives rise to a unique polarization-degenerate birefringent medium, wherein the twist angle acts as a novel degree of freedom for dispersion and polarization management of interface states. Exhibiting fascinating properties and experimental feasibilities, our work points to new possibilities in the research of various topological physics in twisted photonics.