Higher-order topological phases emerging from the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger stacking

Abstract: In this work, we develop a systematical approach of constructing and classifying the model Hamiltonians for two-dimensional (2D) higher-order topological phase with corner zero energy states (CZESs). Our approach is based on the direct construction of analytical solution of the CZESs in a series of 2D systems that stack the 1D extended Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model, two copies of the original SSH model, along two orthogonal directions. Fascinatingly, our approach not only gives the celebrated Benalcazar-Bernevig-Hughes and 2D SSH models but also reveals a novel model and we refer it to crossed 2D SSH model. Although these three models exhibit completely different bulk topology, we find that the CZESs can be universally characterized by edge winding number for 1D edge states, attributing to their unified Hamiltonian construction form and edge topology. Remarkably, our principle of obtaining CZESs can be readily generalized to arbitrary dimension and superconducting systems. Thus, our work sheds new light on the theoretical understanding of the higher-order topological phase and paves the way to looking for higher-order topological insulators and superconductors.