Magneto-polaritons in Weyl semimetals

ORAL

Abstract

Exotic topological and transport properties of Weyl semimetals generated a lot of excitement in the condensed matter community. Here we show that Weyl semimetals in a strong magnetic field are highly unusual optical materials. The hybridization of magnetoplasmons with electromagnetic waves leads to fascinating optical phenomena involving magnetopolaritons: hyperbolic dispersion, the absence of Landau damping for strongly localized excitations, photonic stop bands, coupling-induced transparency, efficient polarization conversion, and pulse compression, to name a few. We show that optical spectroscopic techniques provide a ``clean'' way of detecting properties of low-energy electron states and in particular the chiral anomaly. Moreover, Weyl semimetals show strong promise for future photonic chips enabling a wide array of broadband optoelectronic applications, such as polarizers, modulators, switches, and pulse shapers for mid-infrared through terahertz wavelengths.

*This material is based upon work supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research under award numbers FA9550-15-1-0153, FA9550-14-1-0376, and FA9550-17-1-0341.

Presenters

  • Alexey Belyanin

    • Department of Physics & Astronomy, Texas A&M University
    • Texas A&M University

Authors

  • Alexey Belyanin

    • Department of Physics & Astronomy, Texas A&M University
    • Texas A&M University
  • Zhongqu Long

    • Texas A&M University
  • Yongrui Wang

    • Texas A&M University
  • Maria Erukhimova

    • Institute of Applied Physics
  • Mikhail Tokman

    • Institute of Applied Physics