Maximal Violation of Kirchhoff's Law in Planar Heterostructures

Abstract

Violating Kirchhoff's law has so far required nonreciprocal materials patterned in microstructures. In these configurations, the excitation of a guided or polaritonic mode that lies outside the light cone, often via gratings, was a requirement. Here, we describe how nonreciprocity manifests itself in pattern-free heterostructures. We demonstrate that a resonant mode in a dielectric spacer separating a nonreciprocal film from a back-reflector suffices to maximally violate Kirchhoff's law, and identify the minimal dielectric requirements for such functionality, which are satisfied by currently available materials.