Magneto-optics of massless Kane fermions: Role of the flat band and unusual Berry phase

Abstract

HgCdTe at a critical cadmium doping has a bulk dispersion which includes two linear cones meeting at a single point at zero energy, intersecting a nearly flat band, similar to the pseudospin-1 Dirac-Weyl system. In the presence of a finite magnetic field, these bands condense into highly degenerate Landau levels. We have numerically calculated the frequency-dependent magneto-optical and zero-field conductivity of this material using the Kane model. The calculations show good agreement with recent experimental measurements. We discuss the signature of the flat band and the split peaks of the magneto-optics in terms of general pseudospin-s models and propose that the system exhibits a non-π-quantized Berry phase, found in recent theoretical work.

5 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (4)

• The electronic properties of graphene
• Quantum Spin Hall Effect and Topological Phase Transition in HgTe Quantum Wells
• Quantum Spin Hall Insulator State in HgTe Quantum Wells
• Magneto-optics of general pseudospin-s two-dimensional Dirac-Weyl fermions

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Pressure and temperature driven phase transitions in HgTe quantum wells
• Optical properties of a semi-Dirac material
• Dynamics of a quasiparticle in the $\alpha$-T${}_3$ model: Role of pseudospin polarization and transverse magnetic field on \textbf{\textit{zitterbewegung}}
• An analytic evaluation of Kane fermion magneto-optics in two and three dimensions
• Electronic states of pseudospin-1 fermions in $\alpha -{\mathcal{T}}_3$ lattice ribbons in a magnetic field