Spectral dynamics of topological shift-current in ferroelectric semiconductor SbSI

Autor: Sotome, M., Nakamura, M., Fujioka, J., Ogino, M., Kaneko, Y., Morimoto, T., Zhang, Y., Kawasaki, M., Nagaosa, N., Tokura, Y., Ogawa, N.
Rok vydání: 2018
Předmět:
Druh dokumentu: Working Paper
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1802427116
Popis: Photoexcitation in solids brings about transitions of electrons/holes between different electronic bands. If the solid lacks an inversion symmetry, these electronic transitions support spontaneous photocurrent due to the topological character of the constituting electronic bands; the Berry connection. This photocurrent, termed shift current, is expected to emerge on the time-scale of primary photoexcitation process. We observed ultrafast time evolution of the shift current in a prototypical ferroelectric semiconductor by detecting emitted terahertz electromagnetic waves. By sweeping the excitation photon energy across the band gap, ultrafast electron dynamics as a source of terahertz emission abruptly changes its nature, reflecting a contribution of Berry connection upon interband optical transition. The shift excitation carries a net charge flow, and is followed by a swing-over of the electron cloud on the sub-picosecond time-scale of electron-phonon interaction. Understanding these substantive characters of the shift current will pave the way for its application to ultrafast sensors and solar cells.
Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures
Databáze: arXiv