Mid-infrared broadband circular polarizer based on Weyl semimetals

Abstract

As a three-dimensional topological phase of matter, Weyl semimetals possess extremely large gyrotropic optical response in the mid-infrared region, leading to the strong chiral anomaly. This study proposes a circular polarizer design with a double-WSM-layer structure. It is theoretically shown that the proposed polarizer possesses a high circular polarization efficiency and high average transmittance in the wavelength region from 9 µm to 15 µm at incidence angles up to 50°. The modified 4 × 4 matrix method is used to calculate the circularly polarized transmittance of Weyl semimetals in thin-film or multilayer structures. The temperature dependence on the transmittance is also examined to demonstrate the flexibility of the proposed polarizer in a varying temperature environment. This study reveals the technological prospect that Weyl semimetals are promising candidates for high-performance circular polarizers in infrared spectroscopy and polarimetry.