Four-wave mixing in Weyl semimetals

Weyl semimetals (WSMs) have unusual optical responses originating from unique topological properties of their bulk and surface electron states. Their third-order optical nonlinearity is expected to be very strong, especially at long wavelengths, due to linear dispersion and high Fermi velocity of three-dimensional Weyl fermions. Here we derive the third-order nonlinear optical conductivity of WSMs in the long-wavelength limit and calculate the intensity of the nonlinear four-wave mixing signal as it is transmitted through the WSM film or propagates away from the surface of the material in the reflection geometry. All results are analytic and show the scaling of the signal intensity with variation of all relevant parameters. The nonlinear generation efficiency turns out to be surprisingly high for a lossy material, of the order of several mW per W³ of the incident pump power. Optimal conditions for maximizing the nonlinear signal are realized in the vicinity of bulk plasma resonance. This indicates that ultrathin WSM films of the order of skin depth in thickness could find applications in compact optoelectronic devices.