Van Roosbroeck's equations with topological terms: the case of Weyl semimetals

Abstract

Van Roosbroeck's equations constitute a versatile tool to determine the dynamics of electrons under time- and space-dependent perturbations. Extensively utilized in ordinary semiconductors, their potential to model devices made from topological materials remains untapped. Here, we adapt van Roosbroeck's equations to theoretically study the bulk response of a Weyl semimetal to an ultrafast and spatially localized light pulse in the presence of a quantizing magnetic field. We predict a transient oscillatory photovoltage that originates from the chiral anomaly. The oscillations take place at the plasma frequency (THz range) and are damped by intervalley scattering and dielectric relaxation. Our results illustrate the ability of van Roosbroeck's equations to unveil the interplay between electronic band topology and fast carrier dynamics in microelectronic devices.

5 pages + appendix. Version accepted for publication

References in corpus (10)

• Chiral anomaly and transport in Weyl metals
• Semimetals for high performance photodetection
• Light-induced emergent phenomena in 2D materials and topological materials
• Low-frequency divergence and quantum geometry of the bulk photovoltaic effect in topological semimetals
• All Topological Bands of All Nonmagnetic Stoichiometric Materials
• Topological Materials Discovery from Crystal Symmetry
• Topology and geometry under the nonlinear electromagnetic spotlight
• Hot carriers in graphene -- fundamentals and applications
• Probing charge pumping and relaxation of the chiral anomaly in a Dirac semimetal
• Magneto-optical Kerr effect and signature of the chiral anomaly in a Weyl semimetal in a magnetic field