Multiple exceptional points and phase transitions of a one-dimensional PT-symmetric Lieb photonic lattice

Abstract

Exceptional points (EPs) in non-Hermitian systems have attracted enormous attention and spawned intriguing prospects for the manipulation of waves. Despite many efforts focusing on the exotic behaviors about EPs, there are only a few studies of phase transitions involving multiple EPs. Here, by employing staggered couplings as well as two pairs of on-site gain/loss, we propose a one-dimensional parity-time (PT)-symmetric Lieb photonic lattice and demonstrate diverse phase transitions of such a multiband structure. Owing to the non-Hermitian chiral symmetry, symmetry-protected higher-order EPs are constructed, and the system exhibits PT symmetry breaking beyond a certain threshold. More importantly, both the relative couplings and the on-site gain/loss can be flexibly reconfigured on demand, which yields the degeneracy of different bands, i.e., the emergence of multiple EPs. We also unveil that the EPs will no longer exist in the presence of a non-Hermitian diagonal disorder. In contrast, the spectrum remains symmetric and the EPs, along with the flatband, are robust against the off diagonal disorder due to the preserved non-Hermitian particle-hole symmetry. Our work not only provides a controllable platform for studying EPs but also sheds light on the exciting non-Hermitian physics based on exceptional degeneracies.