Giant photocurrent in asymmetric Weyl semimetals from the helical magnetic effect

Kharzeev, Dmitri E.; Kikuchi, Yuta; Meyer, René; Tanizaki, Yuya

doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.98.014305

Giant photocurrent in asymmetric Weyl semimetals from the helical magnetic effect

Journal Article · Thu Jul 19 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Physical Review B

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.98.014305· OSTI ID:1466631

Kharzeev, Dmitri E. ^[1]; Kikuchi, Yuta ^[2]; Meyer, René ^[3]; Tanizaki, Yuya ^[2]

Stony Brook Univ., NY (United States); Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States). RIKEN Research Center
Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States). RIKEN Research Center
Univ. of Wurzburg (Germany)

We propose a new type of photoresponse induced in asymmetric Weyl semimetals in an external magnetic field. In usual symmetric Weyl semimetals in a magnetic field, the particles and holes produced by an incident light in different Weyl cones have opposite helicities and hence move in opposite directions, canceling each others's contributions to the photocurrent. However this cancelation does not occur if the Weyl semimetal possesses both a broken particle-hole symmetry and a broken spatial inversion symmetry. We call the resulting generation of photocurrent the helical magnetic effect because it is induced by the helicity imbalance in a magnetic field. We find that due to the large density of states in a magnetic field, the helical magnetic effect induces a remarkable large photocurrent for incident THz frequency light. This suggests a potential application of asymmetric Weyl semimetals for creating THz photosensors.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Nuclear Physics (NP) (SC-26)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0012704

OSTI ID:: 1466631

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1461004

Report Number(s):: BNL--207982-2018-JAAM

Journal Information:: Physical Review B, Journal Name: Physical Review B Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 98; ISSN 2469-9950; ISSN PRBMDO

Publisher:: American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Giant photocurrent in asymmetric Weyl semimetals from the helical magnetic effect

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