Interactions Remove the Quantization of the Chiral Photocurrent at Weyl Points

The chiral photocurrent or circular photogalvanic effect (CPGE) is a photocurrent that depends on the sense of circular polarization. In a disorder-free, noninteracting chiral Weyl semimetal, the magnitude of the effect is approximately quantized with a material-independent quantum e^{3}/h^{2} for r...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2020-05, Vol.124 (19), p.196603-196603, Article 196603
Main Authors: Avdoshkin, Alexander, Kozii, Vladyslav, Moore, Joel E
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Circular polarization
CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
Continuum modeling
Graphene
Measurement
Metalloids
Photoelectric effect
Photoelectric emission
Quantum Hall effect
Topology
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Summary:The chiral photocurrent or circular photogalvanic effect (CPGE) is a photocurrent that depends on the sense of circular polarization. In a disorder-free, noninteracting chiral Weyl semimetal, the magnitude of the effect is approximately quantized with a material-independent quantum e^{3}/h^{2} for reasons of band topology. We study the first-order corrections due to the Coulomb and Hubbatrd interactions in a continuum model of a Weyl semimetal in which known corrections from other bands are absent. We find that the inclusion of interactions generically breaks the quantization. The corrections are similar but larger in magnitude than previously studied interaction corrections to the (nontopological) linear optical conductivity of graphene, and have a potentially observable frequency dependence. We conclude that, unlike the quantum Hall effect in gapped phases or the chiral anomaly in field theories, the quantization of the CPGE in Weyl semimetals is not protected but has perturbative corrections in interaction strength.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.196603