Jerk current: A novel bulk photovoltaic effect

TL;DR

This paper introduces the jerk current, a new bulk photovoltaic effect arising from third order polarization susceptibility, characterized by a quadratic growth of photoinduced current in biased insulators without momentum relaxation.

Contribution

The study identifies and characterizes the jerk current, a novel photovoltaic effect involving third order polarization susceptibility and distinct from standard effects.

Findings

Jerk current grows quadratically with illumination time.

It can have a component perpendicular to the static electric field.

A proposed experiment to detect the jerk current.

Abstract

We investigate a physical divergence of the third order polarization susceptibility representing a photoinduced current in biased crystalline insulators. This current grows quadratically with illumination time in the absence of momentum relaxation and saturation; we refer to it as the \textit{jerk current}. Two contributions to the current are identified. The first is a hydrodynamic acceleration of optically injected carriers by the static electric field, and the second is the change in the carrier injection rate in the presence of the static electric field. The jerk current can have a component perpendicular to the static field, a feature not captured by standard hydrodynamic descriptions of carriers in electric fields. We suggest an experiment to detect the jerk current and some of its interesting features.