Emergence of Three-fold Symmetric Helical Photocurrents in Epitaxial Low Twinned Bi$_2$Se$_3$ (2303.07808v2)

Abstract: We observe enhanced three-fold symmetric helicity-dependent topological photocurrents using time-domain THz spectroscopy in epitaxially-grown Bi2Se3 with reduced crystallographic twinning. It is established how twinned crystal domains introduce competing responses that obscure inherent nonlinear optical responses of the intrinsic crystal structure. Minimizing this defect reveals strong nonlinear optical response currents whose magnitude and direction depend on the alignment of the excitation to the crystal axes and follow the three-fold rotational symmetry of the crystal structure. Notably, the azimuthal dependence of the photoresponse persists for helical excitations -- an unprecedented result we attribute to the photon drag effect, where the photon momentum acts as an applied in-plane field that is stationary in the laboratory frame. Additionally, the sign of the resultant THz signal inverts when the helicity of incident light is switched from right to left circularly polarized, indicating a reversal of the photocurrent. Our results demonstrate that even extended domain defects can obscure intrinsic physical processes, making the study of single domain thin films crucial to the observation of phenomena that couple topological order and crystal symmetries.