Terahertz chiral photonic-crystal cavities for Dirac gap engineering in graphene

Strong coupling between matter and vacuum electromagnetic fields in a cavity can induce novel quantum phases in thermal equilibrium via symmetry breaking. Particularly intriguing is the coupling with circularly polarized cavity fields, which can break time-reversal symmetry (TRS) and lead to topological bands. This has spurred significant interest in developing chiral cavities that feature broken TRS, especially in the terahertz (THz) frequency range, where various large-oscillator-strength resonances exist. Here, we present a design for high-quality-factor THz chiral photonic-crystal cavities (PCCs) that achieve broken TRS using a magnetoplasma in a lightly doped semiconductor. We incorporate ab initio density functional theory calculations into the derived microscopic model, allowing a realistic estimate of the vacuum-induced gap in graphene when coupled to our chiral cavity. Our calculations show an enhancement in the light–matter interaction due to Dirac nodes and predict an energy gap on the order of 1 meV. The THz chiral PCCs offer a promising platform for exploring cavity-dressed condensed matter with broken TRS.