Photonic Weyl points due to broken time-reversal symmetry in magnetized semiconductor

Abstract

© 2019, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited. Weyl points are discrete locations in the three-dimensional momentum space where two bands cross linearly with each other. They serve as the monopoles of Berry curvature in the momentum space, and their existence requires breaking of either time-reversal or inversion symmetry1–16. Although various non-centrosymmetric Weyl systems have been reported15, demonstration of Weyl degeneracies due to breaking of the time-reversal symmetry remains scarce and is limited to electronic systems17,18. Here, we report the experimental observation of photonic Weyl degeneracies in a magnetized semiconductor—InSb, which behaves as a magnetized plasma19 for electromagnetic waves at the terahertz band. By varying the magnetic field strength, Weyl points and the corresponding photonic Fermi arcs have been demonstrated. Our observation establishes magnetized semiconductors as a reconfigurable20 terahertz Weyl system, which may prompt research on novel magnetic topological phenomena such as chiral Majorana-type edge states and zero modes in classic systems21,22.