how to download Zip file to browser - php

Question

I am trying to download some images as a zip file to my download folder in pc. But it always downloaded to the projects public folder. What can be the issue?
Here is my code
$photos = json_decode(Input::get('photos'));
$dir = time();
foreach($photos as $file){
$imgName = last(explode('/', $file));
$path = public_path('downloads/'.$dir);
if(!File::exists($path)){
File::makeDirectory($path, 0775, true);
}
ImageHandler::downloadFile($file, $path.'/'.$imgName);
}
$rootPath = realpath($path);
$zip = new ZipArchive();
$file_name = 'photos.zip';
$zip->open( $file_name, ZipArchive::CREATE | ZipArchive::OVERWRITE);
/** #var SplFileInfo[] $files */
$files = new RecursiveIteratorIterator(
new RecursiveDirectoryIterator($rootPath),
RecursiveIteratorIterator::LEAVES_ONLY
);
foreach ($files as $name => $file1)
{
// Skip directories (they would be added automatically)
if (!$file1->isDir())
{
// Get real and relative path for current file
$filePath = $file1->getRealPath();
$relativePath = substr($filePath, strlen($rootPath));
// Add current file to archive
$zip->addFile($filePath, $relativePath);
}
}
$zip->close();
header("Content-Type: application/zip");
header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=$file_name");
readfile($filePath);
exit;