Tunable GH shifts in Weyl thin films on a Weyl substrate

Abstract

A Weyl semimetal can be considered as a system composed of two Weyl cones breaking time-reversal symmetry, which exhibits strong anisotropic hyperbolic characteristics. The off diagonal components of the permittivity tensor of a Weyl semimetal produce the Faraday and Kerr effects. In this paper, we investigate the Goos–Hänchen (GH) shifts when a light is reflected from the interface of air and a Weyl semimetal. It is demonstrated that the angular GH shift is still tiny; however, the spatial GH shift can be huge and is very sensitive to change in the incident angle. The spatial GH shift can change from positive to negative with an increase in the incident angle. The spatial GH shifts vary at different distances of two Weyl cones and thicknesses of a Weyl semimetal film. Furthermore, the tunable GH shift can be realized by changing the tilting parameter and Fermi energy. These adjustable and giant GH shifts may find practical applications in optical shift devices and optical sensors.