Photonic Weyl degeneracies in magnetized plasma

Wenlong Gao, Biao Yang, Mark Lawrence, Fengzhou Fang, Benjamin Béri () and Shuang Zhang ()
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Wenlong Gao: School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham
Biao Yang: School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham
Mark Lawrence: School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham
Fengzhou Fang: State Key Laboratory of Precision Measuring Technology and Instruments, Tianjin University
Benjamin Béri: School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham
Shuang Zhang: School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham

Nature Communications, 2016, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract Weyl particles are elusive relativistic fermionic particles with vanishing mass. While not having been found as an elementary particle, they are found to emerge in solid-state materials where three-dimensional bands develop a topologically protected point-like crossing, a so-called Weyl point. Photonic Weyl points have been recently realised in three-dimensional photonic crystals with complex structures. Here we report the presence of a novel type of plasmonic Weyl points in a naturally existing medium—magnetized plasma, in which Weyl points arise as crossings between purely longitudinal plasma modes and transverse helical propagating modes. These photonic Weyl points are right at the critical transition between a Weyl point with the traditional closed finite equifrequency surfaces and the newly proposed ‘type II’ Weyl points with open equifrequency surfaces. Striking observable features of plasmon Weyl points include a half k-plane chirality manifested in electromagnetic reflection. Our study introduces Weyl physics into homogeneous photonic media, which could pave way for realizing new topological photonic devices.

Date: 2016
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms12435

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