Chiral electromagnetic waves in Weyl semimetals

Electromagnetic Signatures of the Chiral Anomaly in Weyl Semimetals.

Weyl semimetals are predicted to realize the three-dimensional axial anomaly first discussed in particle physics. The anomaly leads to unusual transport phenomena such as the chiral magnetic effect in which an applied magnetic field induces a current parallel to the field. Here we investigate diagnostics of the axial anomaly based on the fundamental equations of axion electrodynamics. We find t...

Electromagnetic response of Weyl semimetals.

It has been suggested recently, based on subtle field-theoretical considerations, that the electromagnetic response of Weyl semimetals and the closely related Weyl insulators can be characterized by an axion term θE·B with space and time dependent axion angle θ(r,t). Here we construct a minimal lattice model of the Weyl medium and study its electromagnetic response by a combination of analytica...

Helicons in Weyl semimetals

Photocurrents in Weyl semimetals

Ching-Kit Chan,1 Netanel H. Lindner,2 Gil Refael,3 and Patrick A. Lee1 1Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA 2Physics Department, Technion, 320003 Haifa, Israel 3Institute of Quantum Information and Matter and Department of Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA (Received 13 August 2016; revised m...

When Chiral Photons Meet Chiral Fermions: Photoinduced Anomalous Hall Effects in Weyl Semimetals.

The Weyl semimetal is characterized by three-dimensional linear band touching points called Weyl nodes. These nodes come in pairs with opposite chiralities. We show that the coupling of circularly polarized photons with these chiral electrons generates a Hall conductivity without any applied magnetic field in the plane orthogonal to the light propagation. This phenomenon comes about because wit...