Photogalvanic effect in HgTe/CdTe topological insulator due to edge-bulk optical transitions

Abstract

We study theoretically 2D HgTe/CdTe quantum well topological insulator (TI) illuminated by circularly polarized light with frequencies higher than the difference between the equilibrium Fermi level and the bottom of the conduction band (THz range). We show that electron-hole asymmetry results in spin-dependent electric dipole transitions between edge and bulk states, and we predict an occurrence of a circular photocurrent. If the edge state is tunnel-coupled to a conductor, then the photocurrent can be detected by measuring an electromotive force (EMF) in the conductor, which is proportional to the photocurrent.

9 pages, 4 figures

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Cited by in corpus (21)

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• Photogalvanic probing of helical edge channels in 2D HgTe topological insulators
• Temperature-induced topological phase transition in HgTe quantum wells
• Infrared/Terahertz Spectra of the Photogalvanic Effect in (Bi,Sb)Te based Three Dimensional Topological Insulators
• Terahertz Photogalvanic Spectroscopy of Three Dimensional Topological Insulators
• Realistic picture of helical edge states in HgTe quantum wells
• Terahertz electric field driven electric currents and ratchet effects in graphene
• High-frequency nonlinear transport and photogalvanic effects in two-dimensional topological insulators
• Photoexcitation of electron wave packets in quantum spin Hall edge states: effects of chiral anomaly from a localised electric pulse
• Antiferromagnetic spin valve from heterostructure of two-dimensional hexagonal crystals
• Linear photogalvanic effect in surface states of topological insulators
• Enhanced circular photogalvanic effect in HgTe quantum wells in the heavily inverted regime
• Interplay between Rashba interaction and electromagnetic field in the edge states of a 2D topological insulator
• Nonlinear optical absorption and photocurrents in topological insulators
• Photoexcitation in two-dimensional topological insulators: Generating and controlling electron wavepackets in Quantum Spin Hall systems
• Edge absorption and pure spin current in 2D topological insulator in the Volkov-Pankratov model
• Electrically controlled crossing of energy levels in quantum dots in two-dimensional topological insulators
• Universal transparency and fine band structure near the Dirac point in HgTe quantum wells
• Effects of electron-hole asymmetry on electronic structure of helical edge states in HgTe/HgCdTe quantum wells
• Optical injection of a spin current into a zigzag nanoribbon of monolayer MoS2 with antiferromagnetic Kekule distortion
• Confinement versus interface bound states in spin-orbit coupled nanowires