The discovery of dynamic chiral anomaly in a Weyl semimetal NbAs

The experimental discovery of Weyl semimetals offers unprecedented opportunities to study Weyl physics in condensed matters. Unique electromagnetic response of Weyl semimetals such as chiral magnetic effect has been observed and presented by the axial E · B term in electromagnetic Lagrangian (E and B are the electric and magnetic field, respectively). But till now, the experimental progress in this direction in Weyl semimetals is restricted to the DC regime. Here we report experimental access to the dynamic regime in Weyl semimetal NbAs by combining the internal deformation potential of coupled phonons with applied static magnetic field. While the dynamic E · B field is realized, it produces an anomalous phonon activity with a characteristic angle-dependence. Our results provide an effective approach to achieve the dynamic regime beyond the widely-investigated DC limit which enables the coupling between the Weyl fermions and the electromagnetic wave for further study of novel light-matter interactions in Weyl semimetals.

Xiang Yuan, Cheng Zhang, Yi Zhang, Zhongbo Yan, Tairu Lyu, Mengyao Zhang, Zhilin Li, Chaoyu Song, Minhao Zhao, Pengliang Leng, Mykhaylo Ozerov, Xiaolong Chen, Nanlin Wang, Yi Shi, Hugen Yan, Faxian Xiu