Topological Atomic Spin Wave Lattices by Dissipative Couplings
Dongdong Hao, Lin Wang, Xingda Lu, Xuzhen Cao, Suotang Jia, Ying Hu, Yanhong Xiao
Abstract
Recent experimental advances in creating dissipative couplings provide a new route for engineering exotic lattice systems and exploring topological dissipation. Using the spatial lattice of atomic spin waves in a vacuum vapor cell, where purely dissipative couplings arise from diffusion of atoms, we experimentally realize a dissipative version of the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model. We construct the dissipation spectrum of the topological or trivial lattices via electromagnetically induced-transparency spectroscopy. The topological dissipation spectrum is found to exhibit edge modes within a dissipative gap. We validate chiral symmetry of the dissipative SSH couplings and also probe topological features of the generalized dissipative SSH model. This work paves the way for realizing non-Hermitian topological quantum optics via dissipative couplings.