Experimental study of 1D Su-Schrieffer-Heeger edge modes in a water-wave channel

The main objective of this work is to experimentally investigate the topologically protected edge-states and band gaps in a water waveguide with periodic geometry. One of the representations of the topological states, provided by the Su–Schrieffer–Heeger model (SSH) [1], is applied to describe the observed phenomena [2]. A waveguide with step periodic width as well as corresponding rectangular tank with constant width are examined using Confocal Displacement Sensors allowing the measurement of water surface displacements. 2D numerical simulations are carried out in order to verify the SSH model and experimental data. The obtained results show that this very simple setup exhibits all the properties of the SSH model with an excellent agreement to the water-wave systems.
References
[1] W.P. Su, J.R. Schrieffer and A.J. Heeger. Solitons in Polyacetylene. Phys. Rev. Lett. 42, 1698-1701 (1979)
[2] L. Zheng, V. Achilleos, O. Richoux, G. Theocharis and V. Pagneux. Observation of Edge Waves in a Two-Dimensional Su-Schrieffer-Heeger Acoustic Network. Phys. Rev. Applied 12, 034014 (2019)