Circular Photogalvanic Effects in WTe<sub>2</sub> and MoTe<sub>2</sub>

ORAL

Abstract

We investigate the generation and temperature dependent evolution of spin photocurrents in WTe2 with the circular photogalvanic effect. A large transverse spin photocurrent is observed when the light scattering plane coincides with one of the high-symmetry planes of the crystal, consistent with symmetry arguments. Upon lowering the temperature, its magnitude starts to decrease below 150 K, which coincides with the temperature below which hole pockets start to form in the Fermi surface. Around 50 K, the spin photocurrent switches its polarity and flows in the opposite direction. A similar behavior is observed in MoTe2.

*This work is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Basic Energy Science, Division of Materials Science and Engineering, under DOE-SU contract DE-AC02-76-SF00515.

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Presenters

  • Se Joon Lim

    • Stanford University

Authors

  • Se Joon Lim

    • Stanford University

  • Claudia Felser

    • Max Planck Institute for the Chemical Physics of Solids
    • Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids
    • Max Planck Institute
    • solid State Chemistry, Max-Planck-Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids,

  • Aharon Kapitulnik

    • Stanford University
    • Stanford Univ
    • Physics, Stanford Univ