Dresden 2014 – scientific programme

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MA: Fachverband Magnetismus

MA 5: Topological insulators: mostly structure and electronic structure (with HL/O/TT)

MA 5.8: Talk

Monday, March 31, 2014, 11:30–11:45, POT 051

Polarization-controlled picosecond spin currents in topological insulators — •Christoph Kastl¹, Christoph Karnetzky¹, Helmut Karl², and Alexander W. Holleitner¹ — ¹Walter Schottky Institut and Physik-Department, Technische Universität München, 85748 Garching, Germany — ²Institute of Physics, University of Augsburg, 86135 Augsburg, Germany

Controlling spin currents in topological insulators may lead to applications in future spintronic devices [1]. Here, we show that surface currents in Bi2Se3 can be controlled by circularly polarized light on a time-scale of a picosecond with a fidelity near unity even at room temperature. We reveal the temporal interplay of such ultrafast spin currents with photo-induced thermoelectric and drift currents in optoelectronic circuits [2].

[1] C. Kastl, T. Guan, X. Y. He, K. H. Wu, Y. Q. Li, and A. W. Holleitner, Appl. Phys. Lett. 101, 251110 (2012).

[2] C. Kastl et al., (2014).

We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the DFG-project HO3324/8 within the SPP 1666 on topological insulators.