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

Title: Chiral terahertz wave emission from the Weyl semimetal TaAs

Journal Article · Wed Feb 05 00:00:00 EST 2020 · Nature Communications

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14463-1· OSTI ID:1806572

^[1]; Kaushik, S. ^[2];

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

^[6];

^[7]; Liu, M. K. ^[2];

^[1]

Univ. of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu (China)
Stony Brook Univ., NY (United States)
Peking Univ., Beijing (China); Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China)
Univ. of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu (China); Univ. of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Dongguan (China)
Fudan Univ., Shanghai (China)
Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China); Songshan Lake Materials Lab., Dongguan (China)
Stony Brook Univ., NY (United States); Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)

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.

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Research Organization:: Stony Brook Univ., NY (United States); Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Nuclear Physics (NP)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0017662; SC0012704

OSTI ID:: 1806572

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1606188

Report Number(s):: BNL-213750-2020-JAAM; TRN: US2212763

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

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 79 works

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