Optical N-invariant of graphene’s topological viscous Hall fluid

Over the past three decades, graphene has become the prototypical platform for discovering topological phases of matter. Both the Chern $$C\in {\mathbb{Z}}$$ C ∈ Z and quantum spin Hall $$\upsilon \in {{\mathbb{Z}}}_{2}$$ υ ∈ Z 2 insulators were first predicted in graphene, which led to a veritable explosion of research in topological materials. We introduce a new topological classification of two-dimensional matter – the optical N-phases $$N\in {\mathbb{Z}}$$ N ∈ Z . This topological quantum number is connected to polarization transport and captured solely by the spatiotemporal dispersion of the susceptibility tensor χ. We verify N ≠ 0 in graphene with the underlying physical mechanism being repulsive Hall viscosity. An experimental probe, evanescent magneto-optic Kerr effect (e-MOKE) spectroscopy, is proposed to explore the N-invariant. We also develop topological circulators by exploiting gapless edge plasmons that are immune to back-scattering and navigate sharp defects with impunity. Our work indicates that graphene with repulsive Hall viscosity is the first candidate material for a topological electromagnetic phase of matter.