Injection current in ferroelectric group-IV monochalcogenide monolayers

Abstract

We study the injection current response tensor (also known as circular photogalvanic effect or ballistic current) in ferrolectric monolayer GeS, GeSe, SnS, and SnSe. We find that the injection current is perpendicular to the spontaneous in-plane polarization and could reach peak (bulk) values of the order of ${10}^{10}\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}\mathrm{A}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{V}}^{\ensuremath{-}2}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{s}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ in the visible spectrum. The magnitude of the injection current is the largest reported in the literature to date for a two dimensional material. To rationalize the large injection current, we correlate the injection current spectrum with the joint density of states, electric polarization, strain, etc. We find that various factors such as anisotropy, in-plane polarization and wave function delocalization are important in determining the injection current tensor in these materials. We also find that compression along the polar axis can increase the injection current (or change its sign), and hence strain can be an effective control knob for their nonlinear optical response. Conversely, the injection current can be a sensitive probe of the crystal structure.