Tracking Ultrafast Photocurrents in the Weyl Semimetal TaAs Using THz Emission Spectroscopy

Sirica, N.; Tobey, R. I.; Zhao, L. X.; Chen, G. F.; Xu, B.; Yang, R.; Shen, B.; Yarotski, D. A.; Bowlan, P.; Trugman, S. A.; Zhu, J. -X.; Dai, Y. M.; Azad, A. K.; Ni, N.; Qiu, X. G.; Taylor, A. J.; Prasankumar, R. P.

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.197401

Title: Tracking Ultrafast Photocurrents in the Weyl Semimetal TaAs Using THz Emission Spectroscopy

Journal Article · Wed May 15 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.197401· OSTI ID:1542840

Sirica, N. ^[1]; Tobey, R. I. ^[2]; Zhao, L. X. ^[3]; Chen, G. F. ^[3]; Xu, B. ^[3]; Yang, R. ^[3]; Shen, B. ^[4]; Yarotski, D. A. ^[1]; Bowlan, P. ^[1]; Trugman, S. A. ^[1]; Zhu, J. -X. ^[1]; Dai, Y. M. ^[5]; Azad, A. K. ^[1]; Ni, N. ^[4]; Qiu, X. G. ^[3]; Taylor, A. J. ^[1]; Prasankumar, R. P. ^[1]

Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Univ. of Groningen (Netherlands). Zernike Inst. for Advanced Materials
Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China). Inst. of Physics
Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy. California NanoSystems Inst.
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Nanjing Univ. (China). School of Physics

We investigate here polarization-dependent ultrafast photocurrents in the Weyl semimetal TaAs using terahertz (THz) emission spectroscopy. Our results reveal that highly directional, transient photocurrents are generated along the noncentrosymmetric c axis regardless of incident light polarization, while helicity-dependent photocurrents are excited within the ab plane. This is consistent with earlier static photocurrent experiments, and demonstrates on the basis of both the physical constraints imposed by symmetry and the temporal dynamics intrinsic to current generation and decay that optically induced photocurrents in TaAs are inherent to the underlying crystal symmetry of the transition metal monopnictide family of Weyl semimetals.

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Research Organization:: Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Center for the Advancement of Topological Semimetals (CATS); Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)

Grant/Contract Number:: 89233218CNA000001; AC02-07CH11358; SC0011978

OSTI ID:: 1542840

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1512837

Report Number(s):: LA-UR-18-26789

Journal Information:: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 122, Issue 19; ISSN 0031-9007

Publisher:: American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 53 works

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