Photon Momentum Enabled Symmetry Breaking and Nonlinear Photocurrents in the Centrosymmetric Dirac Semimetal PdTe

TL;DR

This study shows that photon momentum transfer can dynamically break symmetry in centrosymmetric Dirac semimetals like PdTe, enabling nonlinear photocurrents and revealing bulk quantum geometric effects.

Contribution

It demonstrates that photon momentum enables symmetry breaking and nonlinear optical responses in PdTe, a centrosymmetric Dirac semimetal, revealing bulk contributions and quantum geometry effects.

Findings

Helicity dependent photocurrent reverses with incidence angle.

Photocurrent scales with film thickness, indicating bulk origin.

Photon momentum enables access to quantum geometric tensors.

Abstract

In centrosymmetric Dirac semimetals, second order nonlinear photocurrents are forbidden by the coexistence of time-reversal and inversion symmetries. Here, we demonstrate that finite photon momentum transfer acts as a dynamic symmetry breaking mechanism in PdTe, enabling nonlinear optical responses that are nominally forbidden in the centrosymmetric bulk. Through polarization sensitive measurements, we resolve distinct contributions from the circular photogalvanic effect (CPGE), geometric shift currents, and photon drag mediated processes. We show that the helicity dependent current vanishes at normal incidence and reverses sign with the angle of incidence, reflecting the coupling between photons and spin polarized surface states. Crucially, thickness dependent analysis reveals that the helicity dependent photocurrent component C scales with film thickness, establishing a robust bulk contribution enabled by momentum transfer. This confirms that incident photons provide the directional axis required to probe interband quantum geometry, rather than the response originating solely from surface states or strain. Our results demonstrate that optical excitation can dynamically reduce the effective symmetry of the system, enabling access to quantum geometric tensors and establishing PdTe as a promising platform for exploring nonequilibrium dynamics governed by photon momentum in high symmetry topological materials.