Influence of constant electric field on circular photogalvanic effect in material with Rashba Hamiltonian

TL;DR

This paper investigates how a constant electric field influences the circular photogalvanic effect in materials with Rashba Hamiltonian, using Boltzmann and Monte Carlo methods to analyze charge carrier dynamics and scattering processes.

Contribution

It introduces a combined approach using Boltzmann and Monte Carlo simulations to study the influence of electric fields on CPGE in Rashba materials, justifying the constant relaxation time approximation.

Findings

Inelastic scattering on optical phonons dominates the transverse rectification effect.

Monte Carlo simulations determine mean relaxation times and their dependencies.

Results show good agreement between Monte Carlo and constant collision frequency models.

Abstract

An appearance of a direct current perpendicularly to a constant component of an electric field in material with Rashba Hamiltonian under the influence of an elliptically polarized wave is investigated in one-subband approximation. On its physical nature this effect is close to a circular photogalvanic effect (CPGE) on intraband transitions. The effect is studied on the base of two approaches: investigations of Boltzmann kinetic equation in a constant collision frequency approximation and semiclassical Monte Carlo simulations, which immediately takes into account microscopic processes of charge carriers scattering on optical and acoustical phonons. Monte Carlo modelling allows us to determine a mean relaxation time and its dependencies on electric field strengths and on the energy of optical phonons. On the base of these estimations a possibility of using a constant relaxation time approximation is justified. It is confirmed that the main contribution to the effects of transverse rectification is made by inelastic scattering of electrons on optical phonons. A comparison of results of Monte Carlo simulations and calculations on the base of a constant collision frequency approximation is presented.