Gyrotropy-governed isofrequency surfaces and photonic spin in gyromagnetic media

Direct imaging of isofrequency contours in photonic structures

The isofrequency contours of a photonic crystal are important for predicting and understanding exotic optical phenomena that are not apparent from high-symmetry band structure visualizations. We demonstrate a method to directly visualize the isofrequency contours of high-quality photonic crystal slabs that show quantitatively good agreement with numerical results throughout the visible spectrum...

One-way edge mode in a gyromagnetic photonic crystal slab.

We demonstrate that one-way electromagnetic modes could be sustained by the edge of a gyromagnetic photonic crystal slab of triangular lattice under an external dc magnetic field. The applied magnetic field breaks the time-reversal symmetry of the three-dimensional system, and thus the original degeneracy point in k space, at which two dispersion surfaces intersect, is lifted, resulting in a ph...

Spin-current emission governed by nonlinear spin dynamics

Coupling between conduction electrons and localized magnetization is responsible for a variety of phenomena in spintronic devices. This coupling enables to generate spin currents from dynamical magnetization. Due to the nonlinearity of magnetization dynamics, the spin-current emission through the dynamical spin-exchange coupling offers a route for nonlinear generation of spin currents. Here, we...

Reflection-free one-way edge modes in a gyromagnetic photonic crystal.

We point out that electromagnetic one-way edge modes analogous to quantum Hall edge states, originally predicted by Raghu and Haldane in 2D photonic crystals possessing Dirac point-derived band gaps, can appear in more general settings. We show that the TM modes in a gyromagnetic photonic crystal can be formally mapped to electronic wave functions in a periodic electromagnetic field, so that th...

Optical Gyrotropy and Birefringence in Magnetic Crystals