Ideal Photonic Weyl Nodes Stabilized by Screw Rotation Symmetry in Space Group 19

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Gao and Wang in their manuscript entitled “Ideal Photonic Weyl Nodes Stabilized by Screw Rotation Symmetry in Space Group 19” reports on a photonic crystal belonging to the Space Group 19. The authors analyze simulated band diagrams and claim that some features are related to Weyl Nodes. Potentially this paper is of interest. However, the authors skip to many important details, including simulation method, evaluation of Chern numbers, demonstrating surface modes and their robustness against disordering and so on. Therefore, the authors’ claims are not supported by the results presented in the manuscript.

I recommend authors to revise the manuscript by including important results, which provide evidence of the topological nature of the photonic modes under study.

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Reviewer 2 Report

This manuscript is very interesting and well-written with a clear logic and convincing numerical results. In addition, how the topological Weyl nodes and related new concepts in topological photonics are related to the crystal symmetries would be of high interest to people in the fields of both photonics and crystalline material research. Therefore I recommend it should be published in this journal after making the following two minor changes. First, grammatical errors in the abstract (the tense of verbs "emerge", "arise") should be corrected and other sentences in the main text should be double-checked. Secondly, the resolutions and quality of figures should be improved for the readability. In particular, Fig. 1(e) is difficult to understand because the position is not clearly shown in relation to Fig. 1(a) and there is no color scale bar. 

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Reviewer 3 Report

In this manuscript, the authors propose a metacrystal structure that supports ideal photonic Weyl nodes well isolated from other modes. The authors discuss the origin and stability of the existence of the Weyl node based on the group theory. The report seems to be interesting for the researches in the related fields as a proposal for a structure having photonic Weyl nodes. However, its significance and impact for applications are not discussed enough. In addition, the authors don't provide sufficient information that is needed for the followers to reproduce their calculation results. For further consideration, the manuscript should be revised mandatory by reflecting the following comments.

1. References 32 and 35 also reported the Weyl points isolated from other modes in frequency. The authors should discuss in more detail the differences and advantages of the proposed structure by comparing it with the structures in these reports.
2. Detail information about the structure should be provided. What kind of metal and what the material properties did the authors assume? Structural parameters including the diameter of holes should be identified.
3. The structure possesses ideal Weyl nodes which is isolated in frequency. Is it the consequence of the careful tuning of the structural and material parameters? Or do the ideal Weyl points appear deterministically due to the space group nature of the structure?
4. Please identify the frequency for the distributions shown in Fig. 1 (e).
5. It would be helpful for the potential readers if the authors could show the band structure of SG29 discussed in page 5.
6. In page 6, the authors point out the possibility of the generation of giant effective magnetic field by using the proposed structure. The authors should discuss the significance and the potential applications in photonics of such effective magnetic field.
7. Please identify the periods corresponding to Fig. 5(a) and (b). 2.4 mm and 2.4 mm??
8. Minor corrections
   • P3, L73 Figure 1càFigure 1d?
   • P5, L132 SG 61àSG 19?
   • P6, L142 Figure 4 à Figure 5?

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Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

I checked the revised version of the manuscript. Authors did add new Figures 5b and 5c demonstrating topological robustness of the mode. However the authors did not insert important details i asked including simulation method and evaluation of Chern numbers.

I feel that a reader expect those information in the manuscript. It is required if one try reproducing the results presented here.

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Reviewer 3 Report

I am basically satisfied with the authors’ responses to my comment.

However, I still expect the authors to reflect their responses to my precious comments 1 and 3 to their manuscript. In particular, the response to the comment 1 is important is highly expected to be included to clarify/emphasize the originality and the important of the current work.

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