Topological Phases of Sound and Light

Topological states of matter are particularly robust, since they exploit global features insensitive to local perturbations. In this work, we describe how to create a Chern insulator of phonons in the solid state. The proposed implementation is based on a simple setting, a dielectric slab with a suitable pattern of holes. Its topological properties can be wholly tuned in-situ by adjusting the amplitude and frequency of a driving laser that controls the optomechanical interaction between light and sound. The resulting chiral, topologically protected phonon transport along the edges can be probed completely optically. Moreover, we identify a regime of strong mixing between photon and phonon excitations, which gives rise to a large set of different topological phases. This would be an example of a Chern insulator produced from the interaction between two physically very different particle species, photons and phonons.