Electromagnetic spin polarization on the surface of topological insulator

Details Electromagnetic spin polarization on the surface of topological insulator Electromagnetic spin polarization on the surface of topological insulator

2011-08-08

arxiv.org/abs/1108.1649v1

Physics

Condensed Matter

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics

10 pages, 6 figures

Scientific paper

We study the spin polarization of the electrons on the surface of topological insulators under a dc electric field or a circularly polarized light by using Keldysh Green's function formalism. When a dc electric field $E_x \sim 10^{3} {\rm V/m}$ is applied, a spin polarization $<\sigma_{y}> \simeq 5.2 \times 10^{-8}{\rm \AA^{-2}}$ is induced. Furthermore, we also find that a light illumination induces the out-of-plane component of the spin polarization as a result of the inverse Faraday effect. The magnitude of the spin polarization is proportional to the square of the lifetime $\tau$ and $<\sigma_{z}> \simeq 2 \times 10^{-10}{\rm \AA^{-2}}$ for typical parameters. Finally, we investigate the spin polarization in the presence of the warping term. By the symmetry consideration of the system, we find that the out-of-plane spin polarization is cubic of the current and that the magnitude of the induced spin polarization depends on the direction of the applied current.

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