Dynamical axion field in topological magnetic insulators

被引：446

作者：

Li, Rundong ^{[1
]}

Wang, Jing ^{[1
,2
]}

Qi, Xiao-Liang ^{[1
]}

Zhang, Shou-Cheng ^{[1
]}

机构：

[1] Stanford Univ, Dept Phys, Stanford, CA 94305 USA

[2] Tsinghua Univ, Dept Phys, Beijing 100084, Peoples R China

来源：

NATURE PHYSICS | 2010年 / 6卷 / 04期

关键词：

PARTICLES; MASSLESS;

D O I：

10.1038/NPHYS1534

中图分类号：

O4 [物理学];

学科分类号：

0702 ;

摘要：

Axions are weakly interacting particles of low mass, and were postulated more than 30 years ago in the framework of the Standard Model of particle physics. Their existence could explain the missing dark matter of the Universe. However, despite intensive searches, axions have yet to be observed. Here we show that magnetic fluctuations of topological insulators couple to the electromagnetic fields exactly like the axions, and propose several experiments to detect this dynamical axion field. In particular, we show that the axion coupling enables a nonlinear modulation of the electromagnetic field, leading to attenuated total reflection. We propose a new optical-modulator device based on this principle.

引用

收藏

页码：284 / 288

页数：5

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