Ultrafast magneto-photocurrents in GaAs: Separation of surface and bulk contributions

Abstract: We induce ultrafast magneto-photocurrents in a GaAs crystal employing interband excitation with femtosecond laser pulses at room temperature and non-invasively separate surface and bulk contributions to the overall current response. The separation between the different symmetry contributions is achieved by measuring the simultaneously emitted terahertz radiation for different sample orientations. Excitation intensity and photon energy dependences of the magneto-photocurrents for linearly and circularly polarized excitations reveal an involvement of different microscopic origins, one of which we believe is the inverse Spin-Hall effect. Our experiments are important for a better understanding of the complex momentum-space carrier dynamics in magnetic fields.