The concept of photonic frequency (ω) - momentum (𝑞) dispersion has been extensively studied in artificial dielectric structures such as photonic crystals and metamaterials. However, the ω−𝑞 dispersion of electrodynamic waves hosted in natural materials at the atomistic level is far less explored. Here, we develop an atomistic nonlocal electrodynamic theory of matter by combining the Maxwell Hamiltonian theory of matter with a quantum theory of atomistic polarization. We apply this theory to silicon and discover the existence of atomistic electrodynamic waves. Atomistic electrodynamic waves have sub-nano-meter effective wavelengths in the picoelectrodynamics regime. Further, we show that the atomistic optical conductivity in silicon is highly anisotropic along different momentum directions due to atomistic electronic correlations. Our findings demonstrate that the natural media host variety of yet to be discovered electromagnetic phases of matter and provide a pathway towards the discovery of rich atomic scale light-matter interaction phenomena.
Over the past three decades, graphene has become the prototypical platform for discovering topological phases of matter. Both the Chern C∈Z and quantum spin Hall υ∈Z2 insulators were first predicted in graphene, which led to a veritable explosion of research in topological materials. We introduce a new topological classification of two-dimensional matter – the optical N-phases N∈Z. This topological quantum number is connected to polarization transport and captured solely by the spatiotemporal dispersion of the susceptibility tensor χ. We verify N ≠ 0 in graphene with the underlying physical mechanism being repulsive Hall viscosity. An experimental probe, evanescent magneto-optic Kerr effect (e-MOKE) spectroscopy, is proposed to explore the N-invariant. We also develop topological circulators by exploiting gapless edge plasmons that are immune to back-scattering and navigate sharp defects with impunity. Our work indicates that graphene with repulsive Hall viscosity is the first candidate material for a topological electromagnetic phase of matter.
In this paper, we elucidate the fundamental difference between the magnetic monopoles appearing in Maxwell’s equations and the Dirac equation. Our work shows that a magnetic monopole appears for both photons and massless fermions in the reciprocal energy-momentum space - even for vacuum. Using a Dirac-Maxwell correspondence, we identify the bosonic and fermionic nature of magnetic monopole charge, which is inherently present in the relativistic theories of both particles. While the results in vacuum are expected, we apply this topological theory to 2D photonic (bosonic) materials, in contrast to conventional electronic (fermionic) materials. The specific 2D photonic materials considered in this paper are gyroelectric which possess antisymmetric components of the conductivity tensor. We exploit the Dirac-Maxwell correspondence to show how dispersive gyroelectric media can support topologically massive particles, which are interpreted as photonic skyrmions. However, the differences in spin between bosons and fermions alter the behavior of these bulk skyrmions as well as their corresponding Chern numbers. We then analyze the unique topological edge states associated with nontrivial spin-1 and spin-½ skyrmions, which exhibit opposing helical quantization. This clearly shows how the integer and half-integer nature of monopoles is ultimately tied to the differing bosonic and fermionic spin symmetries. Our work sheds light on the recently proposed quantum gyroelectric phase of matter [32] which supports unidirectional transverse electro-magnetic (TEM) edge states with open boundary conditions (vanishing fields at the edge) - unlike any known phase of matter till date.
We show the existence of an inherent property of evanescent electromagnetic waves: spin-momentum locking, where the direction of momentum fundamentally locks the polarization of the wave. We trace the ultimate origin of this phenomenon to complex dispersion and causality requirements on evanescent waves. We demonstrate that every case of evanescent waves in total internal reflection, surface states and optical fibers/waveguides possesses this intrinsic spin-momentum locking. We also introduce a universal right-handed triplet consisting of momentum, decay and spin for evanescent waves. We derive the Stokes parameters for evanescent waves which reveal an intriguing result - every fast decaying evanescent wave is inherently circularly polarized with its handedness tied to the direction of propagation. We also show the existence of a fundamental angle associated with total internal reflection (TIR) such that propagating waves locally inherit perfect circular polarized characteristics from the evanescent wave. This circular TIR condition occurs if and only if the ratio of permittivities of the two dielectric media exceeds the golden ratio. Our work leads to a unified understanding of this spin-momentum locking in various nanophotonic experiments and sheds light on the electromagnetic analogy with the quantum spin hall state for electrons.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.