Unidirectional transport in electronic and photonic Weyl materials by Dirac mass engineering

Abstract

Unidirectional transports have been observed in two-dimensional systems, however, so far they have not been experimentally observed in three-dimensional bulk materials. In this theoretical work, we show that the recently discovered Weyl materials provide a platform for unidirectional transports inside bulk materials. With high experimental feasibility, a complex Dirac mass can be generated and manipulated in photonic Weyl crystals, creating unidirectionally propagating modes observable in transmission experiments. A possible realization in (electronic) Weyl semimetals is also studied. We show in a lattice model that, with a short-range interaction, the desired form of the Dirac mass can be spontaneously generated in a first-order transition.