Off-resonant polarized light-controlled thermoelectric transport in ultrathin topological insulators

2015/03/23 by M. Tahir, P. Vasilopoulos · 35 citations
Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermoelectric Materials and Devices #Condensed matter physics #Electrical engineering #Engineering #Engineering physics #Graphene research and applications #Materials science #Optoelectronics #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Thermoelectric effect #Topological Materials and Phenomena #Topological insulator #Topology (electrical circuits) #cond-mat.mes-hall

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.91.115311

published in Physical Review B 91(11) (American Physical Society) · 5 pages and 6 figs

openalex publication_date 2015/03/23 · arxiv created 2015/04/21 · arxiv updated 2015/04/22 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

We study thermoelectric transport in ultrathin topological insulators under the application of circularly polarized off-resonant light of frequency \ensuremathΩ and amplitude A. We derive analytical expressions for the band structure, orbital magnetization M_orb, and the thermal (\ensuremathκ_xy) and Nernst (\ensuremathα_xy) conductivities. Reversing the light polarization from right to left leads to an exchange of the conduction and valence bands of the symmetric and antisymmetric surface states and to a sign change in M_orb,\ensuremathα_xy, and \ensuremathκ_xy. Varying the sample thickness or A/\ensuremathΩ leads to a strong enhancement of M_orb and \ensuremathα_xy. These effects, accessible to experiments, open the possibility for selective, state-exchanged excitations under light and the conversion of heat to electric energy.

Citations

• Observation of the Spin Hall Effect in Semiconductors
• Topological insulators and superconductors
• Massive Dirac fermions and spin physics in an ultrathin film of topological insulator
• The birth of topological insulators
• Exciton Condensation and Charge Fractionalization in a Topological Insulator Film
• Topological Insulators
• Berry phase effects on electronic properties

Cited by

• Anomalous Nernst effect on a magnetically doped topological insulator surface: A Green's function approach
• Photoinduced tunable anomalous Hall and Nernst effects in tilted Weyl semimetals using Floquet theory
• Unconventional quantum Hall effect in Floquet topological insulators