Tunable near-perfect nonreciprocal radiation with a Weyl semimetal and graphene.

A tunable near-perfect nonreciprocal thermal emitter, consisting of a dielectric plane and a monolayer graphene sandwiched between a subwavelength grating and a Weyl semimetal plane, is proposed and investigated. Near-complete nonreciprocal radiation can be achieved at resonance, breaking the traditional Kirchhoff's law. The underlying physical mechanism, resulting from a guided mode resonance, is disclosed by illustrating the magnetic field distribution. Moreover, the strong nonreciprocity remains well within a wide range of geometrical parameters. What's more, the performance of the near-perfect spectral nonreciprocity can be flexibly controlled in a wide spectral range through varying the Fermi level of graphene and the axial vector of the Weyl semimetal, which reduces the cost and should be interesting for real application. The conclusions of this paper should prompt the further development of tunable nonreciprocal thermal emitters.