Orbital Rashba effect as a platform for robust orbital photocurrents

arXiv (Cornell University)

Abstract

Orbital current has emerged over the past years as one of the key novel concepts in magnetotransport. Here, we demonstrate that laser pulses can be used to generate large and robust non-relativistic orbital currents in systems where the inversion symmetry is broken by the orbital Rashba effect. By referring to model and first principles tools, we demonstrate that orbital Rashba effect, accompanied by crystal field splitting, can mediate robust orbital photocurrents without a need for spin-orbit interaction even in metallic systems. We show that such non-relativistic orbital photocurrents are translated into derivative photocurrents of spin when relativistic effects are taken into account. We thus promote orbital photocurrents as a promising platform for optical generation of currents of angular momentum, and discuss their possible applications.

Authors 6

1. T. Adamantopoulos Aachen Department of Physics

   Forschungszentrum Jülich · Jülich Aachen Research Alliance · RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Physics , RWTH Aachen University , 52056 Aachen , Germany

   Peter Grünberg Institut and Institute for Advanced Simulation , Forschungszentrum Jülich and JARA , 52425 Jülich , Germany

   Department of Physics, RWTH Aachen University, 52056 Aachen, Germany

   Peter Grünberg Institut and Institute for Advanced Simulation, Forschungszentrum Jülich and JARA, 52425 Jülich, Germany

2. Maximilian Merte Aachen Department of Physics

   Forschungszentrum Jülich · Jülich Aachen Research Alliance · RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Physics, RWTH Aachen University, 52056 Aachen, Germany

   Peter Grünberg Institut and Institute for Advanced Simulation, Forschungszentrum Jülich and JARA, 52425 Jülich, Germany

3. Dongwook Go

   Forschungszentrum Jülich · Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz · Jülich Aachen Research Alliance

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Physics , Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz , 55099 Mainz , Germany

   Peter Grünberg Institut and Institute for Advanced Simulation , Forschungszentrum Jülich and JARA , 52425 Jülich , Germany

   Institute of Physics, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, 55099 Mainz, Germany

   Peter Grünberg Institut and Institute for Advanced Simulation, Forschungszentrum Jülich and JARA, 52425 Jülich, Germany

4. Frank Freimuth

   Forschungszentrum Jülich · Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz · Jülich Aachen Research Alliance

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Physics , Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz , 55099 Mainz , Germany

   Peter Grünberg Institut and Institute for Advanced Simulation , Forschungszentrum Jülich and JARA , 52425 Jülich , Germany

   Institute of Physics, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, 55099 Mainz, Germany

   Peter Grünberg Institut and Institute for Advanced Simulation, Forschungszentrum Jülich and JARA, 52425 Jülich, Germany

5. Stefan Blügel

   Forschungszentrum Jülich · Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz · Jülich Aachen Research Alliance

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Physics, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, 55099 Mainz, Germany

   Peter Grünberg Institut and Institute for Advanced Simulation, Forschungszentrum Jülich and JARA, 52425 Jülich, Germany

6. Yuriy Mokrousov

   Forschungszentrum Jülich · Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz · Jülich Aachen Research Alliance

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Physics , Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz , 55099 Mainz , Germany

   Peter Grünberg Institut and Institute for Advanced Simulation , Forschungszentrum Jülich and JARA , 52425 Jülich , Germany

   Institute of Physics, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, 55099 Mainz, Germany

   Peter Grünberg Institut and Institute for Advanced Simulation, Forschungszentrum Jülich and JARA, 52425 Jülich, Germany