title: One-way helical electromagnetic wave propagation supported by magnetized plasma.
abstract: In this paper we reveal the presence of photonic one-way helical surface states in a simple natural system- magnetized plasma. The application of an external magnetic field to a bulk plasma body not only breaks time-reversal-symmetry but also leads to separation of Equi-Frequency Contour surfaces (EFCs) to form topologically nontrivial gaps in k space. Interestingly, these EFCs support topologically protected surface states. We numerically investigate an interface between magnetized plasma, using a realistic model for parameter dispersion, and vacuum, to confirm the existence of one-way scatter-immune helical surface states. Unlike previous proposals for achieving photonic one-way propagation, our scheme does not require the use of artificial structures and should therefore be simple to implement experimentally.
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Biao
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lawrence
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom.|State Key Laboratory of Precision Measuring Technology and Instruments, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China.
authors.forename: Wenlong
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom.|MOE Key Laboratory of Weak-Light Nonlinear Photonics, School of Physics, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China.
authors.forename: Qinghua
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Shuang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang