Loss-induced Floquet non-Hermitian skin effect

Abstract

Non-Hermitian topological systems have attracted much interest due to their unique topological properties when the non-Hermitian skin effect (NHSE) appears. However, the experimental realization of NHSE conventionally requires nonreciprocal couplings, which are compatible with limited systems. Here, we propose a mechanism of loss-induced Floquet NHSE, where the loss provides the basic source of non-Hermicity and the Floquet engineering brings about Floquet-induced complex next-nearest-neighbor couplings. We also extend the generalized Brillouin zone theory to nonequilibrium systems to describe the Floquet NHSE. Furthermore, we show that this mechanism can realize the second-order NHSE when generalized to two-dimensional systems. Our proposal can be realized in photonic lattices with helical waveguides and other related systems, which opens the door for the study of topological phases in Floquet non-Hermitian systems.