Photonic simulation of topological excitations in metamaterials.
Condensed matter systems with topological order and metamaterials with left-handed chirality have attracted recently extensive interests in the fields of physics and optics. So far the topological order and chirality of electromagnetic wave are two independent concepts, and there is no work to address their connection. Here we propose to establish the relation between the topological order in condensed matter systems and the chirality in metamaterials, by mapping explicitly Maxwell's equations to the Dirac equation in one dimension. We report an experimental implement of the band inversion in the Dirac equation, which accompanies change of chirality of electromagnetic wave in metamaterials, and the first microwave measurement of topological excitations and topological phases in one dimension. Our finding provides a proof-of-principle example that electromagnetic wave in the metamaterials can be used to simulate the topological order in condensed matter systems and quantum phenomena in relativistic quantum mechanics in a controlled laboratory environment.
1] Key Laboratory of Advanced Micro-structure Materials, MOE, Department of Physics, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China [2] Beijing Computational Science Research Center, Beijing 100084, China [3].
Wei
W
Tan
1] Key Laboratory of Advanced Micro-structure Materials, MOE, Department of Physics, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China [2].
Yong
Y
Sun
Key Laboratory of Advanced Micro-structure Materials, MOE, Department of Physics, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China.
Hong
H
Chen
Department of Physics, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China.
Shun-Qing
SQ
Shen