超构材料中的光学量子自旋霍尔效应

电子的量子自旋霍尔效应的发现推进了当今凝聚态物理学的发展,它是一种电子自旋依赖的具有量子行为的输运效应.近年来,大量的理论和实验研究表明,描述电磁波场运动规律的麦克斯韦方程组内禀了光的量子自旋霍尔效应,存在于界面的倏逝波表现出强烈的自旋与动量关联性.得益于新兴的光学材料:超构材料(metamaterials)的发展,不仅能够任意设定光学参数,同时也能引入很多复杂的自旋-轨道耦合机理,让我们能够更加清晰地了解和验证其中的物理机理.本文对超构材料中量子自旋霍尔效应做了简要的介绍,内容主要包括真空中光的量子自旋霍尔效应的物理本质、电单负和磁单负超构材料能带反转导致的不同拓扑相的界面态、拓扑电路系统中光量子自旋霍尔效应等.

Quantum spin Hall effect in metamaterials

Quantum spin Hall effect (QSHE) of electrons has improved the development of condensed matter researchnowadays, which describesone kind of spin-dependent quantum transport behavior in solid state. Recently, a variety of theoretical and experimental work has revealed that Maxwell equations, which is formulated 150 years ago and ultimately describeproperties of light, can exhibit an intrinsic quantum spin Hall effect of light. The evanescent wave supported on the interface among different media behaves strong spin-momentum locking. With the rapid development of new optics materials, metamaterials, we can not only adjust the optical parameters of media arbitrarily, but also introduce a lot of complex spin-orbit interaction mechanism. Based on metamaterials, the essential physical mechanism behind quantum spin Hall effect of light can be understood deeply and verified easily. The purpose of this review is to give a brief introduction to quantum spin Hall effect of light in metamaterials. These include, for example, the physical essence of QSHE of light, the topological interface mode between permittivity negative and permeability negative metamaterials, QSHE in topological circuits.