Giant topological longitudinal circular photo-galvanic effect in the chiral multifold semimetal CoSi

Zhuoliang Ni, K. Wang, Y. Zhang, O. Pozo, B. Xu, X. Han, K. Manna, J. Paglione, C. Felser, A. G. Grushin, F. Juan, E. J. Mele and Liang Wu ()
Additional contact information
Zhuoliang Ni: University of Pennsylvania
K. Wang: University of Maryland
Y. Zhang: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
O. Pozo: Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid, CSIC
B. Xu: University of Fribourg
X. Han: University of Pennsylvania
K. Manna: Max-Planck-Institut fur Chemische Physik fester Stoffe
J. Paglione: University of Maryland
C. Felser: Max-Planck-Institut fur Chemische Physik fester Stoffe
A. G. Grushin: University of Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Grenoble INP, Institut Néel
F. Juan: Donostia International Physics Center
E. J. Mele: University of Pennsylvania
Liang Wu: University of Pennsylvania

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract The absence of mirror symmetry, or chirality, is behind striking natural phenomena found in systems as diverse as DNA and crystalline solids. A remarkable example occurs when chiral semimetals with topologically protected band degeneracies are illuminated with circularly polarized light. Under the right conditions, the part of the generated photocurrent that switches sign upon reversal of the light’s polarization, known as the circular photo-galvanic effect, is predicted to depend only on fundamental constants. The conditions to observe quantization are non-universal, and depend on material parameters and the incident frequency. In this work, we perform terahertz emission spectroscopy with tunable photon energy from 0.2 –1.1 eV in the chiral topological semimetal CoSi. We identify a large longitudinal photocurrent peaked at 0.4 eV reaching ~550 μ A/V2, which is much larger than the photocurrent in any chiral crystal reported in the literature. Using first-principles calculations we establish that the peak originates only from topological band crossings, reaching 3.3 ± 0.3 in units of the quantization constant. Our calculations indicate that the quantized circular photo-galvanic effect is within reach in CoSi upon doping and increase of the hot-carrier lifetime. The large photo-conductivity suggests that topological semimetals could potentially be used as novel mid-infrared detectors.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-20408-5

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