Observation of chiral zero mode in inhomogeneous three-dimensional Weyl metamaterials

Hongwei Jia, Ruixing Zhang, Wenlong Gao, Qinghua Guo, Biao Yang, Jing Hu, Yangang Bi, Yuanjiang Xiang, Chaoxing Liu, Shuang Zhang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

51 Citations (Scopus)
317 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Owing to the chirality of Weyl nodes, the Weyl systems can support one-way chiral zero modes under a strong magnetic field, which leads to nonconservation of chiral currents—the so-called chiral anomaly. Although promising for robust transport of optical information, the zero chiral bulk modes have not been observed in photonics. Here we design an inhomogeneous Weyl metamaterial in which a gauge field is generated for the Weyl nodes by engineering the individual unit cells. We experimentally confirm the presence of the gauge field and observe the zero-order chiral Landau level with one-way propagation. Without breaking the time-reversal symmetry, our system provides a route for designing an artificial magnetic field in three-dimensional photonic Weyl systems and may have potential for device applications in photonics.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)148-151
Number of pages4
JournalScience
Volume363
Issue number6423
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 11 Jan 2019

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