Twist-induced control of near-field heat radiation between magnetic Weyl semimetals

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that the near-field heat transfer between magnetic Weyl semimetals can be actively controlled by rotating the slabs, leveraging their intrinsic nonreciprocal surface modes without additional surface structuring.

Contribution

It introduces a novel twist-based method to control heat transfer between magnetic Weyl semimetals, exploiting their nonreciprocal surface modes without surface patterning.

Findings

Heat transfer can be modulated by relative rotation of slabs.

Intrinsic nonreciprocity enables control without surface structuring.

Rotation causes mode mismatch, affecting heat transfer.

Abstract

Due to the large anomalous Hall effect, magnetic Weyl semimetals can support nonreciprocal surface plasmon polariton modes in the absence of an external magnetic field. This implies that magnetic Weyl semimetals can find novel application in (thermal) photonics. In this work, we consider the near-field radiative heat transfer between two magnetic Weyl semimetal slabs and show that the heat transfer can be controlled with a relative rotation of the parallel slabs. Thanks to the intrinsic nonreciprocity of the surface modes, this so-called twisting method does not require surface structuring like periodic gratings. The twist-induced control of heat transfer is due to the mismatch of the surface modes from the two slabs with a relative rotation.