The Anthony J Leggett Institute for Condensed Matter Physics Seminar: "Topo-photovoltaics"
- Event Type
- Seminar/Symposium
- Sponsor
- Physics Department
- Location
- ESB 190
- Date
- Nov 4, 2024 12:00 pm
- Speaker
- Aris Alexandradinata, University of California Santa Cruz
- Contact
- Stephen Bullwinkel
- bullwink@illinois.edu
- Phone
- 217-333-1652
- Views
- 218
- Originating Calendar
- Physics - The Anthony J Leggett Institute for Condensed Matter Theory Seminar
In non-centrosymmetric materials, light induces real-space shifts of quasiparticles which result in a photovoltaic current. Such shifts arise from all dynamical, far-from-equilibrium, kinetic processes, including photo-excitation, intraband relaxation and interband recombination. These shifts are enhanced by the twisting of electronic wavefunctions in momentum space; such twisting is characterized by the well-known intra-band Berry phase and the less-known inter-band Berry phase. Wave-function-enhanced photovoltaic currents can be utilized as an unprecedented phenomenological framework to faithfully diagnose topological materials, as I will exemplify with BiTeI.