Black hole mirages: electron lensing and Berry curvature effects in inhomogeneously tilted Weyl semimetals
English
Haller, Andreas[University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Science, Technology and Medicine (FSTM) > Department of Physics and Materials Science (DPHYMS) >]
Hegde, Suraj[Technische Universität Dresden > Institute of Theoretical Physics]
Xu, Chen[Technische Universität Dresden > Institute of Theoretical Physics]
De Beule, Christophe[University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Science, Technology and Medicine (FSTM) > Department of Physics and Materials Science (DPHYMS) > ; University of Pennsylvania - Penn > Department of Physics and Astronomy]
Schmidt, Thomas[University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Science, Technology and Medicine (FSTM) > Department of Physics and Materials Science (DPHYMS) >]
Meng, Tobias[Technische Universität Dresden > Institute of Theoretical Physics]
[en] We study electronic transport in Weyl semimetals with spatially varying nodal tilt profiles. We find that the flow of electrons can be guided precisely by judiciously chosen tilt profiles. In a wide regime of parameters, we show that electron flow is described well by semiclassical equations of motion similar to the ones governing gravitational attraction. This analogy provides a physically transparent tool for designing tiltronic devices, such as electronic lenses. The analogy to gravity circumvents the notoriously difficult full-fledged description of inhomogeneous solids, but a comparison to microscopic lattice simulations shows that it is only valid for trajectories sufficiently far from analogue black holes. We finally comment on the Berry curvature-driven transverse motion, and relate the latter to spin precession physics.
[University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Science, Technology and Medicine (FSTM) > Department of Physics and Materials Science (DPHYMS) >]
