Here, we report first principles calculations and analysis of laser-induced photocurrents at the surface of a prototype Rashba system. By referring to Keldysh non-equilibrium formalism combined with the Wannier interpolation scheme we perform first-principles electronic structure calculations of a prototype BiAg$_2$ surface alloy, which is a well-known material realization of the Rashba model. In addition to non-magnetic ground state situation we also study the case of in-plane magnetized BiAg$_2$. We calculate the laser-induced charge photocurrents for the ferromagnetic case and the laser-induced spin photocurrents for both the non-magnetic and the ferromagnetic cases. Our results confirm the emergence of very large in-plane photocurrents as predicted by the Rashba model. The resulting photocurrents satisfy all the symmetry restrictions with respect to the light helicity and the magnetization direction. We provide microscopic insights into the symmetry and magnitude of the computed currents based on the ab-initio multi-band electronic structure of the system, and scrutinize the importance of resonant two-band and three-band transitions for driven currents, thereby establishing a benchmark picture of photocurrents at Rashba-like surfaces and interfaces. Our work contributes to the study of the role of the interfacial Rashba spin-orbit interaction as a mechanism for the generation of in-plane photocurrents, which are of great interest in the field of ultrafast and terahertz spintronics.
Controlling helicity-dependent photocurrent in polycrystalline Sb$_2$Te$_2$Se topological insulator thin films at ambient temperature through wave-vector of and photothermal gradient due to polarized light
在室温下，利用脉冲激光沉积技术生长了以c轴取向为主的颗粒状多晶样品，研究了拓扑绝缘体Sb $_2$ Te $_2$ Se中螺旋度相关光电流的光学控制。强的自旋-轨道耦合和自旋-动量锁定使得该系统在应用中具有独特性。我们观察到，可以通过用不同的圆和线偏振光激发样品来控制光电流，产生与偏振相关的电流密度，该电流密度可以与理论模型很好地拟合。即使在室温下，光电流的幅度也高于先前对其他单晶拓扑绝缘体的报道。与理论模型的比较表明，光电流有不同的贡献。研究光电流对激发激光束相对于样品表面法线的入射角（波矢量）的依赖性有助于确定对所观察到的光电流有贡献的不同项的起源。入射角驱动的螺旋度开关，这是一个非常简单和有效的技术来控制定向光电流，也被观察到在这项研究中。该光电流也可以借助于由激发光束产生的光热梯度来控制。由于在存在独特的自旋-动量锁定表面态的情况下用两个相反的（左和右）圆偏振光进行选择性自旋态激发，在存在光热梯度的情况下，入射在样品的两个相对边缘上的光的这种光电流的增强和反转发生。这些观察结果使得这种多晶材料在偏振相关的光电探测应用以及环境条件下的自旋光电子学中更加重要。
Nonlinear intensity dependence of ratchet currents induced by terahertz laser radiation in bilayer graphene with asymmetric periodic grating gates
University of Regensburg（雷根斯堡大学）；CENTERA Laboratories, Institute of High Pressure Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences（波兰科学院高压物理研究所 CENTERA 实验室）；Ioffe Institute（约费研究所）；National Institute for Materials Science（日本国立材料研究所）
