Chiral terahertz wave emission from the Weyl semimetal TaAs

Gao, Y.; Kaushik, S.; Philip, E. J.; Li, Z.; Qin, Y.; Liu, Y. P.; Zhang, W. L.; Su, Y. L.; Chen, X.; Weng, H.; Kharzeev, D. E.; Liu, M. K.; Qi, J.

doi:10.1038/s41467-020-14463-1

Chiral terahertz wave emission from the Weyl semimetal TaAs

Journal Article · Tue Feb 04 23:00:00 EST 2020 · Nature Communications

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14463-1· OSTI ID:1606188

^[1]; Kaushik, S. ^[2]; ^[2]; Li, Z. ^[3]; Qin, Y. ^[1]; Liu, Y. P. ^[1]; Zhang, W. L. ^[1]; Su, Y. L. ^[1]; Chen, X. ^[2]; ^[4]; ^[5]; Liu, M. K. ^[2]; ^[1]

Univ. of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu (China)
Stony Brook Univ., NY (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
Peking Univ., Beijing (China); Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China). Inst. of Physics. Beijing National Lab. for Condensed Matter Physics (BNLCP-CAS)
Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China). Inst. of Physics. Beijing National Lab. for Condensed Matter Physics (BNLCP-CAS); Songshan Lake Materials Lab., Dongguan (China)
Stony Brook Univ., NY (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy; Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States). Dept. of Physics

Weyl semimetals host chiral fermions with distinct chiralities and spin textures. Optical excitations involving those chiral fermions can induce exotic carrier responses, and in turn lead to novel optical phenomena. Here, we discover strong coherent terahertz emission from Weyl semimetal TaAs, which is demonstrated as a unique broadband source of the chiral terahertz wave. The polarization control of the THz emission is achieved by tuning photoexcitation of ultrafast photocurrents via the photogalvanic effect. In the near-infrared regime, the photon-energy dependent nonthermal current due to the predominant circular photogalvanic effect can be attributed to the radical change of the band velocities when the chiral Weyl fermions are excited during selective optical transitions between the tilted anisotropic Weyl cones and the massive bulk bands. Our findings provide a design concept for creating chiral photon sources using quantum materials and open up new opportunities for developing ultrafast opto-electronics using Weyl physics.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

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

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

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0012704

OSTI ID:: 1606188

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1806572

Report Number(s):: BNL--213750-2020-JAAM

Journal Information:: Nature Communications, Journal Name: Nature Communications Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 11; ISSN 2041-1723

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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