Optical detection and manipulation of spontaneous gyrotropic electronic order in a transition-metal dichalcogenide semimetal

Abstract

The observation of chirality is ubiquitous in nature. Contrary to intuition, the population of opposite chiralities is surprisingly asymmetric at fundamental levels. Examples range from parity violation in the subatomic weak force to the homochirality in essential biomolecules. The ability to achieve chirality-selective synthesis (chiral induction) is of great importance in stereochemistry, molecular biology and pharmacology. In condensed matter physics, a crystalline electronic system is geometrically chiral when it lacks any mirror plane, space inversion center or roto-inversion axis. Typically, the geometrical chirality is predefined by a material's chiral lattice structure, which is fixed upon the formation of the crystal. By contrast, a particularly unconventional scenario is the gyrotropic order, where chirality spontaneously emerges across a phase transition as the electron system breaks the relevant symmetries of an originally achiral lattice. Such a gyrotropic order, proposed as the quantum analogue of the cholesteric liquid crystals, has attracted significant interest. However, to date, a clear observation and manipulation of the gyrotropic order remain challenging. We report the realization of optical chiral induction and the observation of a gyrotropically ordered phase in the transition-metal dichalcogenide semimetal $1T$-TiSe${}_2$. We show that shining mid-infrared circularly polarized light near the critical temperature leads to the preferential formation of one chiral domain. As a result, we are able to observe an out-of-plane circular photogalvanic current, whose direction depends on the optical induction. Our study provides compelling evidence for the spontaneous emergence of chirality in the correlated semimetal TiSe${}_2$. Such chiral induction provides a new way of optical control over novel orders in quantum materials.

22 pages, 5 figures

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• Semimetal to semimetal charge density wave transition in 1T-TiSe${}_2$
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• Topology and geometry under the nonlinear electromagnetic spotlight
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• Photocurrent as a multi-physics diagnostic of quantum materials
• Chiral phonons probed by X rays
• Circular dichroism of emergent chiral stacking orders in quasi-one-dimensional charge density waves
• Roadmap for Photonics with 2D Materials
• Visualization of Chiral Electronic Structure and Anomalous Optical Response in a Material with Chiral Charge Density Waves
• Axion optical induction of antiferromagnetic order
• Breaking symmetry with light: photo-induced chirality in a non-chiral crystal
• Atomic-Scale Visualization of Chiral Charge Density Wave States and Their Reversible Transition
• Electrical switching of ferro-rotational order in nano-thick 1T-TaS${}_2$ crystals
• Coexistence of resistance oscillations and the anomalous metal phase in a lithium intercalated TiSe${}_2$ superconductor
• Snapshots of a light-induced metastable hidden phase driven by the collapse of charge order
• Ultrafast Switching from the Charge Density Wave Phase to a Metastable Metallic State in 1T-TiSe${}_2$
• Photocurrent response in parity-time symmetric current-ordered states
• Chirality manipulation of ultrafast phase switchings in a correlated CDW-Weyl semimetal
• Abnormal Surface Nonlinear Optical Responses in Topological Materials
• Observation of orbital order in the Van der Waals material 1T-TiSe2
• Topological Circular Dichroism in Chiral Multifold Semimetals
• Understanding chiral charge-density wave by frozen chiral phonon
• Trigonal-to-monoclinic structural transition in TiSe${}_2$ due to a combined condensation of $\text{q}=(\frac{1}{2},0,0)$ and $(\frac{1}{2},0,\frac{1}{2})$ phonon instabilities
• Magnetic parity violation and parity-time-reversal-symmetric magnets
• Observation of giant circular dichroism induced by electronic chirality
• Origin of chirality in transition-metal dichalcogenides
• Optically induced symmetry breaking due to nonequilibrium steady state formation in charge density wave material 1T-TiSe2
• A Polymeric Planarization Strategy for Versatile Multi-terminal Electrical Transport Studies on Small, Bulk Quantum Materials
• Topological theory of inversion-breaking charge-density-wave monolayer 1\textit{T}-TiSe${}_2$
• Nonlinear Nonreciprocal Photocurrents under Phonon Dressing
• Broken symmetries associated with a Kagome chiral charge order
• In-plane anisotropy of charge density wave fluctuations in 1$T$-TiSe${}_2$
• Two-dimensional chiral stacking orders in quasi-one-dimensional charge density waves
• Chiral charge density wave and backscattering-immune orbital texture in monolayer 1T-TiTe2
• Single laser pulse driven thermal limit of the quasi-two dimensional magnetic ordering in Sr${}_2$IrO${}_4$
• Photo-induced Dynamics and Momentum Distribution of Chiral Charge Density Waves in 1T-TiSe${}_2$
• Non-chiral 1T-TiSe2 creates circular dichroism in resonant X-ray diffraction via multipole scattering interference
• Topological Insulator Metamaterial with Giant Circular Photogalvanic Effect
• Topological Enhancement of Nonlinear Transports in Unconventional Point-Node Semimetals
• Cluster charge-density-wave glass in hydrogen-intercalated TiSe${}_2$
• Electron-phonon-dominated charge-density-wave fluctuations in TiSe${}_2$ accessed by ultrafast nonequilibrium dynamics
• Doping-induced nematic and stripe orders within the charge density wave state of TiSe${}_2$
• Superconducting gap and its Little-Parks like oscillations with high-order harmonics in lithium intercalated 1T-TiSe${}_2$
• Revealing inverted chirality of hidden domain wall states in multiband systems without topological transition
• Revisiting the charge-density-wave superlattice of 1$T$-TiSe${}_2$