The interplay between non-Hermitian effects and topological insulators has become a frontier of research in non-Hermitian physics. However, the existence of a non-Hermitian skin effect for topological-protected edge states remains controversial. In this paper, we discover a new type of the non-Hermitian skin effect called the non-Hermitian chiral skin effect. Non-Hermitian chiral skin effect is induced by inhomogeneous edge dissipation under closed boundary conditions. In particular, the chiral modes of the non-Hermitian chiral skin effect localize around “topological defects” characterized by global dissipation rather than being confined to the system boundaries. We show its detailed physical properties by taking the non-Hermitian Haldane model as an example. As a result, the intrinsic mechanism of the hybrid skin-topological effect in Chern insulators is fully understood via the non-Hermitian chiral skin effect. Therefore this work will be helpful for the research on both non-Hermitian physics and topological quantum states.

• Received 17 June 2023
• Revised 3 November 2023
• Accepted 10 January 2024

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.6.013213

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society