- Jin, Dafei;
- Xia, Yang;
- Christensen, Thomas;
- Freeman, Matthew;
- Wang, Siqi;
- Fong, King Yan;
- Gardner, Geoffrey C;
- Fallahi, Saeed;
- Hu, Qing;
- Wang, Yuan;
- Engel, Lloyd;
- Xiao, Zhi-Li;
- Manfra, Michael J;
- Fang, Nicholas X;
- Zhang, Xiang
Two-dimensional topological materials bearing time reversal-breaking magnetic fields support protected one-way edge modes. Normally, these edge modes adhere to physical edges where material properties change abruptly. However, even in homogeneous materials, topology still permits a unique form of edge modes - kink modes - residing at the domain boundaries of magnetic fields within the materials. This scenario, despite being predicted in theory, has rarely been demonstrated experimentally. Here, we report our observation of topologically-protected high-frequency kink modes - kink magnetoplasmons (KMPs) - in a GaAs/AlGaAs two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) system. These KMPs arise at a domain boundary projected from an externally-patterned magnetic field onto a uniform 2DEG. They propagate unidirectionally along the boundary, protected by a difference of gap Chern numbers ([Formula: see text]) in the two domains. They exhibit large tunability under an applied magnetic field or gate voltage, and clear signatures of nonreciprocity even under weak-coupling to evanescent photons.