Intrinsic nonreciprocal reflection and violation of Kirchhoff's law of radiation in planar type-I magnetic Weyl semimetal surfaces

Abstract

This work demonstrates that Kirchhoff's law of radiation, stating that the spectral directional emissivity and absorptivity of a surface are equal at thermal equilibrium, can be violated in planar surfaces without an external magnetic field or structures such as gratings. Modeling a type-I magnetic Weyl semimetal with an antisymmetric dielectric tensor, we show an intrinsic violation of Kirchhoff's law due to nonreciprocal surface polaritons induced by the Berry curvature and anomalous Hall velocity. This work provides a simple way to physically realize the violation of Kirchhoff's law.

Topics & Concepts