Nonadiabatic nonlinear non-Hermitian quantized pumping

Abstract

We analyze a quantized pumping in a nonlinear non-Hermitian photonic system with nonadiabatic driving. The photonic system is made of a waveguide array, where the distances between adjacent waveguides are modulated. It is described by the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model together with a saturated nonlinear gain term and a linear loss term. A topological interface state between the topological and trivial phases is stabilized by the combination of a saturated nonlinear gain term and a linear loss term. We study the pumping of the topological interface state. We define the transfer-speed ratio $\omega /\Omega $ by the ratio of the pumping speed $% \omega $ of the center of mass of the wave packet to the driving speed $ \Omega $ of the topological interface. It is quantized as $\omega /\Omega =1$ in the adiabatic limit. It remains to be quantized for slow driving even in the nonadiabatic regime, which is a nonadiabatic quantized pump. On the other hand, there is almost no pump for fast driving. We find a transition in pumping as a function of the driving speed.