A cascading nonlinear magneto-optical effect in topological insulators

Abstract

Topological insulators (TIs) are characterized by possessing metallic (gapless) surface states and a finite band-gap state in the bulk. As the thickness of a TI layer decreases down to a few nanometer, hybridization between the top and bottom surfaces takes place due to quantum tunneling, consequently at a critical thickness a crossover from a 3D-TI to a 2D insulator occurs. Although such a crossover is generally accessible by scanning tunneling microscopy, or by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, such measurements require clean surfaces. Here, we demonstrate that a cascading nonlinear magneto-optical effect induced via strong spin-orbit coupling can examine such crossovers. The helicity dependence of the time-resolved Kerr rotation exhibits a robust change in periodicity at a critical thickness, from which it is possible to predict the formation of a Dirac cone in a film several quintuple layers thick. This method enables prediction of a Dirac cone using a fundamental nonlinear optical effect that can be applied to a wide range of TIs and related 2D materials.

arXiv comment7 pages, 6 figures

References in corpus (16)

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Cited by in corpus (7)

• Giant nonlinear optical effects induced by nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond crystals
• Coherent Dirac plasmons in topological insulators
• Anomalous Magneto Optic Effects from an Antiferromagnet Topological-Insulator Heterostructure
• Conductance of gated junctions as a probe of topological interface states
• A topological phase buried in a chalcogenide superlattice monitored by a helicity dependent Kerr measurement
• Ultrafast opto-magnetic effects induced by nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond crystals
• Photon Energy Dependence of Kerr Rotation in Chalcogenide Superlattices