Charge and spin photocurrents in the Rashba model

Freimuth F, Bluegel S, Mokrousov Y (2021)


Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2021

Journal

Book Volume: 103

Article Number: 075428

Journal Issue: 7

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.103.075428

Abstract

In metallic noncentrosymmetric crystals and at surfaces the response of spin currents and charge currents to applied electric fields contains contributions that are second order in the electric field, which are forbidden by symmetry in centrosymmetric systems. Thereby, photocurrents and spin photocurrents can be generated in inversion asymmetric metals by the application of femtosecond laser pulses. We study the laser-induced charge current in the ferromagnetic Rashba model with in-plane magnetization and find that this magnetic photogalvanic effect can be tuned to be comparable in size to the laser-induced photocurrents measured experimentally in magnetic bilayer systems such as Co/Pt. Additionally, we show that femtosecond laser pulses excite strong spin currents in the nonmagnetic Rashba model when the Rashba parameter is large.

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How to cite

APA:

Freimuth, F., Bluegel, S., & Mokrousov, Y. (2021). Charge and spin photocurrents in the Rashba model. Physical Review B, 103(7). https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.103.075428

MLA:

Freimuth, Frank, Stefan Bluegel, and Yuriy Mokrousov. "Charge and spin photocurrents in the Rashba model." Physical Review B 103.7 (2021).

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