Surface current properties of ZrTe5 excited by ultrafast laser

Authors：Hui, Hai -Hui; Li, Min^*; Xia, Yu; Liu, Zheng; He, Ming -Yang; Yuan, Shuai; Zeng, He -Ping

Source：JOURNAL OF INFRARED AND MILLIMETER WAVES, 2022, 41(4): 733-738.

DOI：10.11972/j.issn.1001-9014.2022

• terahertz spectroscopy
• Dirac materials
• ZrTe5
• circular photogalvanic effect

transient photocurrent generated by femtosecond laser excitation on the surface of Dirac semimetal ZrTe5 were measured through the reflected terahertz time-domain spectroscopy. Experimental results reveal several physical mechanisms of terahertz radiation generated from ZrTe5. The results show that the polarization-independent photocur-rent is the main component of the surface current,and the terahertz amplitude is related to polarization of the pump laser pulse,which indicates that part of the current is caused by nonlinear optical rectification effect. Under circularly polar-ized laser pumping,the terahertz amplitude changes four times periodically with the pump laser pulse,which confirms that circular photogalvanic effect of ZrTe5. Besides,we have analyzed the terahertz time-domain electric field excited by ultrashort laser pulses. The ZrTe5 inversion symmetry is broken under the excitation of the femtosecond laser pulse, which produces B1u phonons,forming a transient Weyl point,and undergoing a phase transition from the Dirac state to the Weyl state. This is of great significance to the study of topological phase transitions and other topological states.