Year: 2021
Type: article
Abstract: Symmetry plays a central role in conventional and topological phases of matter, making the ability to optically drive symmetry changes a critical step in developing future technologies that rely on such control. Topological materials, like the newly discovered topological semimetals, are particularly sensitive to a breaking or restoring of time-reversal and crystalline symmetries, which affect both bulk and surface electronic states. While previous studies have focused on controlling symmetry via coupling to the crystal lattice, we demonstrate here an all-electronic mechanism based on photocurrent generation. Using second-harmonic generation spectroscopy as a sensitive probe of symmetry changes, we observe an ultrafast breaking of time-reversal and spatial symmetries following femtosecond optical excitation in the prototypical type-I Weyl semimetal TaAs. Our results show that optically driven photocurrents can be tailored to explicitly break electronic symmetry in a generic fashion, opening up the possibility of driving phase transitions between symmetry protected states on ultrafast time scales.
Source: Nature Materials
Authors: N. Sirica, P. P. Orth, M. S. Scheurer, Y. M. Dai, M.-C. Lee, P. Padmanabhan, L. T. Mix, S. W. Teitelbaum, M. Trigo, L. X. Zhao, G. F. Chen, B. Xu, R. Yang, B. Shen, C. Hu, C.-C. Lee, H. Lin, T. A. Cochran, S. A. Trugman, J.-X. Zhu, M. Z. Hasan, N. Ni, X. G. Qiu, A. J. Taylor, D. A. Yarotski, R. P. Prasankumar
Institutions: Los Alamos National Laboratory, Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, Iowa State University, Ames National Laboratory, Universität Innsbruck, National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Nanjing University, Arizona State University, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Physics, University of California, Los Angeles, State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technology, Tamkang University, Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica, Princeton University, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Language: English
Subfield: Condensed Matter Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funders: National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan, Office of Science, Division of Materials Research, Basic Energy Sciences, Laboratory Directed Research and Development, Los Alamos National Laboratory, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering
Awards: G1073925650, G120534361, G1229526393, G1286251239, G1416063161, G1418315740, G1715343728, G1866217153, G1928406341, G2173773851, G2316606464, G2327333655, G2371548206, G237429762, G2441759041, G249831736, G262532246, SYNCHOTRON X-RAY BASED ELECTRONIC STRUCTURE STUDY OF CORRELATED QUANTUM MATERIALS, G285533474, G303061748, First-Principles Calculations of Excitation Properties at the Interfaces of Solids Together with the Code Development of Searching for the Most Suitable Basis Functions for Such Calculations, G333242795, G3702897590, G409309524, G4235786860, Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP), G4654690619, EXPLORING SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AT THE EDGE OF MAGNETIC OR STRUCTURAL INSTABILITIES, G4908923434, G495301720, G498139845, G507888039, Theories of Metals with Correlated Electrons, G5570207115, G5959670421, G628751139, G6516066570, G6550344761, SYNCHOTRON X-RAY BASED ELECTRONIC STRUCTURE STUDY OF CORRELATED QUANTUM MATERIALS, G7083997402, PROBING THE INTERPLAY OF TOPOLOGY, MAGNETISM AND SUPERCONDUCTIVITY IN INTRINSIC MAGNETIC AND SUPERCONDUCTING TOPOLOGICAL MATERIALS, G7283024673, G7313278570, G737106015, G8265776597, G8382000481, EXPLORING SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AT THE EDGE OF MAGNETIC OR STRUCTURAL INSTABILITIES, G8680792847, G911061179, G95070906, G966015550, G969889393
OpenAlex ID: W3026895876