Berry curvature dipole in Weyl semimetal materials: An ab initio study

Yang Zhang, Yan Sun, Binghai Yan

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Noncentrosymmetric metals are anticipated to exhibit a dc photocurrent in the nonlinear optical response caused by the Berry curvature dipole in momentum space. Weyl semimetals (WSMs) are expected to be excellent candidates for observing these nonlinear effects because they carry a large Berry curvature concentrated in small regions, i.e., near the Weyl points. We have implemented the semiclassical Berry curvature dipole formalism into an ab initio scheme and investigated the second-order nonlinear response for two representative groups of materials: the TaAs-family type-I WSMs and the MoTe2-family type-II WSMs. Both types of WSMs exhibited a Berry curvature dipole in which type-II Weyl points are usually superior to the type-I WSM because of the strong tilt. Corresponding nonlinear susceptibilities in several materials promise a nonlinear Hall effect in the dc field limit, which is within the experimentally detectable range.

Original languageEnglish
Article number041101
Number of pages6
JournalPhysical Review B
Volume97
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 3 Jan 2018

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Berry curvature dipole in Weyl semimetal materials: An ab initio study'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this