Anomalous photo-thermal effects in multi-layered semi-Dirac black phosphorus

TL;DR

This paper explores how high-frequency light induces a topological phase transition in multi-layered potassium doped black phosphorus, leading to anomalous thermal effects driven by Berry curvature.

Contribution

It demonstrates the photo-induced transition from a normal insulator to a Chern insulator and analyzes the resulting anomalous Ettinghausen and Righi-Leduc effects.

Findings

Photo-induced topological phase transition in black phosphorus.

Quantitative analysis of anomalous thermal coefficients.

Modulation of effects via strain, doping, and radiation frequency.

Abstract

The photo-excitation of multi-layered potassium doped black phosphorus that exists as a gapped semi-Dirac two-dimensional normal insulator (NI), transforms it into a time-reversal symmetry broken Chern insulator (CI). This transition from an NI to CI happens under a high-frequency radiation corresponding to the off-resonant regime of the Floquet theory of periodic perturbations, which here is the impinging light beam. This photo-induced topological CI phase manifests as a finite Berry curvature and forms the basis of anomalous transverse heat flow in presence of a longitudinal temperature gradient. The anomalous variants of the Ettinghausen (EE) and Righi-Leduc effects (RLE), via their respective coefficients are quantitatively analyzed in this work. The strength of anomalous EE and RLE coefficients is a direct outcome of the sum of Berry curvatures over the occupied bands and is shown to drop as the Fermi level is positioned high in the conduction states or deep in the valence region. The drop is attributed to the flipped sign of the Berry curvature in the conduction and valence bands. Additionally, when the Fermi level lies in the band gap, the contribution of the conduction and valence bands may numerically outweigh one another for a much larger value of the coefficients. Finally, we point out how beyond the role of Berry curvature, several laboratory accessible methods can be utilized to modulate the EE and RLE coefficients, including an application of strain, variations in the dopant concentration, and frequency of incident radiation.