Jung, Pawel S.Pyrialakos, Georgios G.Wu, Fan O.Parto, MidyaKhajavikhan, MercedehKrolikowski, WieslawChristodoulides, Demetrios N.2023-09-262023-09-262041-1723http://hdl.handle.net/1885/300212The chaotic evolution resulting from the interplay between topology and nonlinearity in photonic systems generally forbids the sustainability of optical currents. Here, we systematically explore the nonlinear evolution dynamics in topological photonic lattices within the framework of optical thermodynamics. By considering an archetypical two-dimensional Haldane photonic lattice, we discover several prethermal states beyond the topological phase transition point and a stable global equilibrium response, associated with a specific optical temperature and chemical potential. Along these lines, we provide a consistent thermodynamic methodology for both controlling and maximizing the unidirectional power flow in the topological edge states. This can be achieved by either employing cross-phase interactions between two subsystems or by exploiting self-heating effects in disordered or Floquet topological lattices. Our results indicate that photonic topological systems can in fact support robust photon transport processes even under the extreme complexity introduced by nonlinearity, an important feature for contemporary topological applications in photonics.This work was partially supported by ONR MURI (N00014-20-1-2789), AFOSR MURI (FA9550-20-1-0322, FA9550-21-1-0202), National Science Foundation (NSF) (DMR-1420620, EECS-1711230,ECCS CBET 1805200, ECCS 2000538, ECCS 2011171), MPS Simons collaboration (Simons grant 733682), W. M. Keck Foundation, US–Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF: 2016381), US Air Force Research Laboratory (FA86511820019), DARPA (D18AP00058), Office of Naval Research (N00014-19-1-2052, N00014-20-1-2522), Army Research Office (W911NF17-1-0481), the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education (1654/ MOB/V/2017/0) and the Qatar National Research Fund (grant NPRP13S0121-200126). G.G.P. would like to acknowledge the Bodossaki foundation.application/pdfen-AU© The Author(s) 2022https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/2022-07-2910.1038/s41467-022-32069-72022-07-31Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License