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Colossal mid-infrared bulk photovoltaic effect in a type-I Weyl semimetal

Nature Materials volume 18, pages 471–475 (2019)Cite this article

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Abstract

Broadband, efficient and fast conversion of light to electricity is crucial for sensing and clean energy. The bulk photovoltaic effect (BPVE) is a second-order nonlinear optical effect that intrinsically converts light into electrical current. Here, we demonstrate a large mid-infrared BPVE in microscopic devices of the Weyl semimetal TaAs. This discovery results from combining recent developments in Weyl semimetals, focused-ion beam fabrication and theoretical works suggesting a connection between BPVE and topology. We also present a detailed symmetry analysis that allows us to separate the shift current response from photothermal effects. The magnitude and wavelength range of the assigned shift current may impact optical detectors, clean energy and topology, and demonstrate the utility of Weyl semimetals for practical applications.

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Fig. 1: Symmetry and photocurrent generation.
Fig. 2: Polarization-dependent photocurrent.
Fig. 3: Reported glass coefficients.

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The data presented in this study may be available from the corresponding author upon request.

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Acknowledgements

Photocurrent experiments performed by G.O. and work done by K.S.B. were supported by the US Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under award no. DE-SC0018675. M.J.G. acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation, award no. DMR-1709987. L.K.D. was supported by a DAAD RISE fellowship. X.Y. and Y.R. acknowledge support from the National Science Foundation under grant no. DMR-1151440. Work at UCLA was supported by the US DOE, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under award no. DE-SC0011978. X.H. and P.J.W.M. were supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 715730).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA

    Gavin B. Osterhoudt, Laura K. Diebel, Mason J. Gray, Xu Yang, John Stanco, Ying Ran & Kenneth S. Burch

  2. Max-Planck-Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, Dresden, Germany

    Xiangwei Huang & Philip J. W. Moll

  3. Department of Physics and Astronomy and California NanoSystems Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Bing Shen & Ni Ni

  4. EPFL, IMX, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Philip J. W. Moll

Authors
  1. Gavin B. Osterhoudt
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  2. Laura K. Diebel
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Contributions

K.S.B. and Y.R. conceived the study. G.B.O. and L.K.D. performed the primary measurements, analysed the data and provided the plots. M.J.G. performed the magneto-transport measurements. J.S., X.Y. and Y.R. performed the group theory analysis, local-density approximation and tight binding calculations. G.B.O. and K.S.B. wrote the manuscript with input from all co-authors. B.S. and N.N. prepared the bulk crystals and P.J.W.M. and X.H. created the devices.

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Correspondence to Kenneth S. Burch.

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Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figures 1–8, Supplementary Notes 1–8, Supplementary Table 1, Supplementary References 1–27

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Osterhoudt, G.B., Diebel, L.K., Gray, M.J. et al. Colossal mid-infrared bulk photovoltaic effect in a type-I Weyl semimetal. Nat. Mater. 18, 471–475 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-019-0297-4

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