Nonreciprocal electromagnetic wave manipulation via a single reflection

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how a single planar interface with nonreciprocal materials can achieve advanced electric field manipulation, including radiation pattern control, phase adjustment, and spatial profile shaping, without complex patterning.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach for electric field manipulation using simple nonreciprocal interfaces, enabling multiple control functionalities without patterning.

Findings

Achieved radiation pattern redistribution with closed-form expressions

Demonstrated carrier-envelope phase control

Enabled spatial profile manipulation

Abstract

Electric field manipulation plays a key role in applications such as electron acceleration, nonlinear light-matter interaction, and radiation engineering. Nonreciprocal materials, such as Weyl semimetals, enable the manipulation of the electric field in a full photonic manner, owing to their intrinsic time-reversal symmetry breaking, leading to asymmetric material response for photons with +k and -k momenta. Here, the results suggest that a simple planar interface between semi-infinite air and a nonreciprocal material can achieve spatio-temporal manipulation of the electric field. In particular, this work presents three compelling scenarios for electromagnetic wave manipulation: radiation pattern redistribution (with closed-form expressions provided), carrier-envelope phase control, and spatial profile control. The presented results pave the way for electric field manipulation using pattern-free nonreciprocal materials.