Chiral electromagnetic waves in Weyl semimetals
Abstract
We show that Weyl semimetals with broken time-reversal symmetry can host chiral electromagnetic waves. The magnetization that results in a momentum-space separation of a pair of opposite chirality Weyl nodes is also responsible for the nonzero gyrotropy parameter in the system. It is then shown that a chiral electromagnetic wave can propagate in a region of space where the gyrotropy parameter changes sign. Such waves are analogs of quantum Hall edge states for photons.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review B
- Pub Date:
- September 2015
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevB.92.115310
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1410.2704
- Bibcode:
- 2015PhRvB..92k5310Z
- Keywords:
-
- 73.22.Gk;
- 41.20.Jb;
- 42.25.Gy;
- 78.20.Ls;
- Broken symmetry phases;
- Electromagnetic wave propagation;
- radiowave propagation;
- Edge and boundary effects;
- reflection and refraction;
- Magnetooptical effects;
- Condensed Matter - Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
- E-Print:
- 4 pages and 1 figure