Strong and wide-angle nonreciprocal radiation in modified distributed Bragg reflector-Weyl semimetal heterostructure

Abstract

An approach to obtain easy-to-fabricate and spectrally selective nonreciprocal thermal emitter (NTE) has been proposed. The presented hybrid structure is composed of Weyl semimetal (WSM) film sandwiched by Ge/BaF2/Ge tri-layer and metal substrate. It has been shown that structural parameters hold tolerance on the order of hundreds of nanometers, which are highly favorable for fabricating with low cost and high performance. Multiband responses of the device can be realized through controlling the thickness of last Ge layer, which boosts the flexibility of preparation and potential applications. The giant nonreciprocity can be maintained with broad polar and azimuthal angle ranges. By manipulating the structural parameters, a remarkable result of nonreciprocal radiation is realized under both the transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) wave incidence. By changing the azimuthal angle (ϕi) of incidence, the nonreciprocity (η) can be effectively manipulated. The simulated η spectra is symmetric along the azimuthal angle ϕi=90°, and η=0 when ϕi=90°. Our results provide a much simpler way to achieve the multi-channel nonreciprocity and could lead to the advancement of power scavenging and conversion devices.

Keywords

• Nonreciprocity
• Weyl semimetal
• Thermal emitter
• Mid-infrared