Magneto-optical conductivity of Weyl semimetals

TL;DR

This paper calculates the magneto-optical conductivity of Weyl semimetals, revealing asymmetric peaks and Landau level features, with disorder effects showing as peak blurring and oscillations.

Contribution

It provides a detailed theoretical analysis of the magneto-optical response of Weyl semimetals, highlighting characteristic spectral features and disorder effects.

Findings

Conductivity exhibits asymmetric peaks on a linear background.

Landau levels cause additional features in the optical response.

Weak disorder blurs peaks but preserves measurable oscillations.

Abstract

Weyl semimetals are a topological phase of matter that have drawn recent interest and have been suggested as a possible phase of the pyrochlore irridates, among other materials. Here, we compute the magneto-optical response of an isolated Weyl point. We find that the conductivity is a series of asymmetric peaks lying on top of a linear background. We find additional features in the conductivity that are explained by the underlying Landau level structure. We show that weak disorder tends to blur out the peaks, but they still show up as measurable oscillations on a linear background.