Detection of highly conductive surface electron states in topological crystalline insulators Pb1−xSnxSe using laser terahertz radiation

Egorova, S. G.; Chernichkin, V. I.; Ryabova, L. I.; Skipetrov, E. P.; Yashina, Lada V.; Danilov, Sergey; Ganichev, Sergey; Хохлов, Д. Р.

doi:10.1038/srep11540

Cited by 35 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…There have been many theoretical and experimental works in the past few years on helicity-controlled photocurrents [14][15][16][17][18], the linear photogalvanic effect [19][20][21], local photocurrents [22,23], edge photocurrents in two-dimensional (2D) TIs [24,25], coherent control of injection currents [26,27], photon drag currents [19,28,29], second-harmonic generation [30], photoinduced quantum Hall insulators [31,32], cyclotron-resonance-assisted photocurrents [33,34], quantum oscillations of photocurrents [35], photogalvanic currents via proximity interactions with magnetic materials [36][37][38], and the photoelectromagnetic effect [39]. These phenomena, scaling in the second or third order of the radiation electric fields, open up new opportunities to study Dirac fermions, which has been already demonstrated for graphene (for a review see Ref.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Photon drag effect in(Bi1−xSbx)2Te3three-dimensional topological insulators

et al. 2016

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We report on the observation of a terahertz radiation-induced photon drag effect in epitaxially grown nand p-type (Bi 1−x Sb x ) 2 Te 3 three-dimensional topological insulators with different antimony concentrations x varying from 0 to 1. We demonstrate that the excitation with polarized terahertz radiation results in a dc electric photocurrent. While at normal incidence a current arises due to the photogalvanic effect in the surface states, at oblique incidence it is outweighed by the trigonal photon drag effect. The developed microscopic model and theory show that the photon drag photocurrent can be generated in surface states. It arises due to the dynamical momentum alignment by time-and space-dependent radiation electric field and implies the radiation-induced asymmetric scattering in the electron momentum space. We show that the photon drag current may also be generated in the bulk. Both surface states and bulk photon drag currents behave identically upon variation of such macroscopic parameters as radiation polarization and photocurrent direction with respect to the radiation propagation. This fact complicates the assignment of the trigonal photon drag effect to a specific electronic system.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Photon drag effect in(Bi1−xSbx)2Te3three-dimensional topological insulators

et al. 2016

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“…In particular, recently the second approach was used to demonstrate existence of highly conductive surface electron states in Pb Sn Se alloys through measurements of the photoelectromagnetic effect induced by terahertz laser radiation pulses [15]. These direct-gap semiconductors are classified as topological crystalline insulators (TCIs) at , where the energy spectrum is inverted [4], [5], [16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At lower tin contents , the alloys possess a normal sequence of energy bands which should prevent formation of topological surface electron states. On the other hand, experiments performed in [15] have demonstrated that highly conductive surface electron states are present in Pb…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Discrimination of Conductive Surface Electron States by Laser Terahertz Radiation in PbSe—A Base for Pb$_{1-x}$Sn$_x$Se Topological Crystalline Insulators

Egorova

Chernichkin

Dudnik

et al. 2015

IEEE Trans. THz Sci. Technol.

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We report on the influence of oxidation on features of surface electron states in PbSe films-materials belonging to the family of topological crystalline insulators Pb Sn Se. These states are detected through observation of the photoelectromagnetic effect induced by terahertz laser pulses. It is demonstrated that highly conductive surface electron states in PbSe are inherent to the semiconductor itself and are not related to the material oxidation. This allows excluding surface states induced by oxidation as a reason for high surface conductivity in topological crystalline insulators based on Pb Sn Se.Index Terms-IV-VI semiconductor materials, photoelectromagnetic effect, surface conductivity, terahertz, topological insulators (TIs). and also with the P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute,

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“…Lead chalcogenides and Pb 1−x Sn x Te(Se) solid solutions pass to the TCI phase at certain values of the concentration of tin when the inversion of bands of different parities occurs at the L points [54][55][56][57]. The role of spatial symmetry in these compounds is played by mirror symmetry, which persists not for any orientations of the surface.…”

Section: Topological Surface Statesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Surface states of a system of dirac fermions: A minimal model

Enaldiev

2016

J. Exp. Theor. Phys.

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A brief survey is given of theoretical works on surface states (SSs) in Dirac materials. Within the formalism of envelope wave functions and boundary conditions for these functions, a minimal model is formulated that analytically describes surface and edge states of various (topological and nontopological) types in several systems with Dirac fermions (DFs). The applicability conditions of this model are discussed. I. THE ENVELOPE-FUNCTION METHOD. INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF THE PROBLEMBy the middle of the 20-th century, the problem arose of explaining and predicting the electronic properties of semiconductors in external fields. Various versions of the single-band effective-mass method were developed. The Luttinger-Kohn envelope-function (EF) method 1 based on a generalization of the kp-approach turned out to be very convenient. The formalism of EFs admitted a natural multiband generalization. Such a generalization was made by Keldysh in his theory of deep impurities 2. In [2], Keldysh also noticed that, under certain conditions, EFs in a narrow-band semiconductor obey an effective Dirac equation (a system of four first-order differential equations). It is interesting that, in III-V semiconductors, this situation occurs under reversal of the sign of the strong spin-orbit splitting of the valence band. The idea of inversion of bands in crystals with strong spinorbit interaction will be addressed below in this paper. In the same year as [2], it was shown [3] that the spectrum of electrons and holes in bismuth near the L points of the Brillouin zone should be described by an anisotropic Dirac Hamiltonian.According to modern terminology, bismuth can be considered as a Dirac material, and the first Dirac material at that. These materials include graphene, bismuth-antimony alloys, lead chalcogenides, 2D and 3D topological insulators, Dirac semimetals, Weyl semimetals, and many other materials. One-particle excitations in these materials are called massless (for gapless materials) or massive Dirac fermions (DFs).The energy spectrum E(p) of free DFs in the threedimensional isotropic case is analogous to the spectrum of a relativistic electron:Here m is the electron effective mass, which is usually one or two orders of magnitude less than the mass of a free electron in vacuum, and c is the effective velocity of light. This velocity is two orders of magnitude less than the velocity of light in vacuum; therefore, real Fermi excitations are, in fact, non-relativistic. However, relativistic corrections due to spin-orbit interaction in crystals with close bands may be rather large, which contributes to the formation of DFs. A finite mass in the spectrum of relativistic particles corresponds to a finite width of the forbidden band according to the well-known formulaThe 1960s marked the emergence of the physics of 2D electron systems. Quantum size effect was started to be used to realize the 3D → 2D transition. The conventional theory of size quantization is based on the single-band effective mass approximation with zero bou...

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Detection of highly conductive surface electron states in topological crystalline insulators Pb1−xSnxSe using laser terahertz radiation

Cited by 35 publications

References 27 publications

Photon drag effect in(Bi1−xSbx)2Te3three-dimensional topological insulators

Photon drag effect in(Bi1−xSbx)2Te3three-dimensional topological insulators

Discrimination of Conductive Surface Electron States by Laser Terahertz Radiation in PbSe—A Base for Pb$_{1-x}$Sn$_x$Se Topological Crystalline Insulators

Surface states of a system of dirac fermions: A minimal model

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