Linked Weyl surfaces and Weyl arcs in photonic metamaterials

Abstract

Generalization of the concept of band topology from lower-dimensional to higher-dimensional (n > 3) physical systems is expected to introduce new bulk and boundary topological effects. However, theoretically predicted topological singularities in five-dimensional systems—Weyl surfaces and Yang monopoles—have either not been demonstrated in realistic physical systems or are limited to purely synthetic dimensions. We constructed a system possessing Yang monopoles and Weyl surfaces based on metamaterials with engineered electromagnetic properties, leading to the observation of several intriguing bulk and surface phenomena, such as linking of Weyl surfaces and surface Weyl arcs, via selected three-dimensional subspaces. The demonstrated photonic Weyl surfaces and Weyl arcs leverage the concept of higher-dimension topology to control the propagation of electromagnetic waves in artificially engineered photonic media.