Observation of a chiral state in a microwave cavity.
A microwave experiment has been realized to measure the phase difference of the oscillating electric field at two points inside the cavity. The technique has been applied to a dissipative resonator which exhibits a singularity-called exceptional point-in its eigenvalue and eigenvector spectrum. At the singularity, two modes coalesce with a phase difference of pi/2. We conclude that the state excited at the singularity has a definitive chirality.
Dembowski
C
C
Institut für Kernphysik, Technische Universität Darmstadt, D-64289 Darmstadt, Germany.
Dietz
B
B
Gräf
H-D
HD
Harney
H L
HL
Heine
A
A
Heiss
W D
WD
Richter
A
A