Strain modulation of photocurrent in Weyl semimetal TaIrTe4

TL;DR

This study investigates how applying strain to TaIrTe4 affects its energy bands and photocurrent in heterojunctions, revealing strain as an effective tool for modulating optoelectronic properties in Weyl semimetals.

Contribution

It demonstrates that strain can break Weyl points and significantly enhance photocurrent, offering a new mechanical approach to control electronic properties in TaIrTe4-based devices.

Findings

Weyl points are eliminated with increasing strain along z direction.

Photocurrent is sharply enhanced by strain in the heterojunction.

Strain-induced effects show anisotropic behavior.

Abstract

We study the effect of the strain on the energy bands of TaIrTe4 sheet and the photocurrent in the Cu-TaIrTe4-Cu heterojunction by using the quantum transport simulations. It is found that the Weyl points can be completely broken with increasing of the strain along z dirction. One can obtain a large photocurrent in the Cu-TaIrTe4-Cu heterojunction in the absence of the strain. While the photocurrent can be sharply enhanced by the strain and reach a large value. Accordingly, the maximum values of the photocurrent can be explained in terms of the transitions between peaks of density of states and band structures. The strain-induced energy bands and photocurrent exhibit anisotropic behaviors. Our results provide a novel route to effectively modulate the energy bands and the photocurrent by utilizing mechanical methods for TaIrTe4-based devices.