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Journal article

Quantized circular photogalvanic effect in Weyl semimetals.

Abstract:
The circular photogalvanic effect (CPGE) is the part of a photocurrent that switches depending on the sense of circular polarization of the incident light. It has been consistently observed in systems without inversion symmetry and depends on non-universal material details. Here we find that in a class of Weyl semimetals (for example, SrSi2) and three-dimensional Rashba materials (for example, doped Te) without inversion and mirror symmetries, the injection contribution to the CPGE trace is effectively quantized in terms of the fundamental constants e, h, c and with no material-dependent parameters. This is so because the CPGE directly measures the topological charge of Weyl points, and non-quantized corrections from disorder and additional bands can be small over a significant range of incident frequencies. Moreover, the magnitude of the CPGE induced by a Weyl node is relatively large, which enables the direct detection of the monopole charge with current techniques.
Publication status:
Published
Peer review status:
Peer reviewed

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Publisher copy:
10.1038/ncomms15995

Authors


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Institution:
University of Oxford
Division:
MPLS
Department:
Physics
Sub department:
Theoretical Physics
Role:
Author


Publisher:
Nature Publishing Group
Journal:
Nature Communications More from this journal
Volume:
8
Pages:
15995
Publication date:
2017-07-01
Acceptance date:
2017-05-18
DOI:
EISSN:
2041-1723
Pmid:
28681840


Language:
English
Keywords:
Pubs id:
pubs:708229
UUID:
uuid:68b876d2-ddbf-4e95-92a7-a236e56a10ec
Local pid:
pubs:708229
Source identifiers:
708229
Deposit date:
2017-08-22

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