Observation of quadratic Weyl points and double-helicoid arcs

TL;DR

This paper reports the first experimental observation of quadratic Weyl points in a 3D chiral sound crystal, revealing unique quadratic dispersions and double-helicoid surface arcs that demonstrate their topological nature.

Contribution

It provides the first experimental evidence of quadratic Weyl points and their associated double-helicoid surface arcs in a sound crystal, expanding the understanding of topological quasiparticles.

Findings

Observation of quadratic Weyl points in a chiral metacrystal

Identification of double-helicoid surface arcs connecting Weyl points

Demonstration of the topological charge of unconventional Weyl nodes

Abstract

Very recently, novel quasiparticles beyond those mimicking the elementary high-energy particles such as Dirac and Weyl fermions have attracted great interest in condensed matter physics and materials science1-9. Here we report the first experimental observation of the long-desired quadratic Weyl points10 by using a three-dimensional chiral metacrystal of sound waves. Markedly different from the newly observed unconventional quasiparticles5-9, such as the spin-1 Weyl points and the charge-2 Dirac points that are featured respectively with threefold and fourfold band crossings, the charge-2 Weyl points identified here are simply twofold degenerate, and the dispersions around them are quadratic in two directions and linear in the third one10. Besides the essential nonlinear bulk dispersions, we further unveil the exotic double-helicoid surface arcs that emanate from a projected quadratic Weyl point and terminate at two projected conventional Weyl points through Fourier transformation of the scanned surface fields. This unique global surface connectivity provides conclusive evidence for the double topological charges of such unconventional topological nodes.