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Title: Drude weight and optical conductivity of a two-dimensional heavy-hole gas with k-cubic spin-orbit interactions

Journal Article · · Journal of Applied Physics
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4940881· OSTI ID:22494943
;  [1]
  1. Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur, Kanpur 208 016 (India)

We present a detailed theoretical study on zero-frequency Drude weight and optical conductivity of a two-dimensional heavy-hole gas (2DHG) with k-cubic Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit interactions. The presence of k-cubic spin-orbit couplings strongly modifies the Drude weight in comparison to the electron gas with k-linear spin-orbit couplings. For large hole density and strong k-cubic spin-orbit couplings, the density dependence of Drude weight deviates from the linear behavior. We establish a relation between optical conductivity and the Berry connection. Unlike two-dimensional electron gas with k-linear spin-orbit couplings, we explicitly show that the optical conductivity does not vanish even for equal strength of the two spin-orbit couplings. We attribute this fact to the non-zero Berry phase for equal strength of k-cubic spin-orbit couplings. The least photon energy needed to set in the optical transition in hole gas is one order of magnitude smaller than that of electron gas. Types of two van Hove singularities appear in the optical spectrum are also discussed.

OSTI ID:
22494943
Journal Information:
Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 119, Issue 4; Other Information: (c) 2016 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0021-8979
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English