Terahertz field-driven nonlinear Hall effect and other second order transport phenomena in two-dimensional tellurene

Abstract

We study terahertz field-driven second-order nonlinear electron transport phenomena, including the nonlinear Hall effect (NLHE), in two-dimensional tellurene flakes. The dc current excited by linearly polarized terahertz (THz) radiation in Hall bar samples is investigated in directions both along and perpendicular to the $c$-axis of tellurene. As expected for second-order transport phenomena, the current scales as the square of the in-plane electric field of the radiation $\bf E$, and depends on its orientation. The current results from a combination of three contributions, including the NLHE, the Nonlinear Longitudinal (NLL) and Nonlinear Diagonal (NLD) currents. We established the equivalence between NLH, NLL, and NLD transport currents and Linear photogalvanic effect (LPGE) contributions induced by the absorption of linearly polarized and unpolarized THz radiation. All contributions can be controlled by a gate voltage and have opposite signs for electron and hole conductivity. The magnitude of the current increases drastically when the samples are cooled from room temperature to 4.2 K. It also increases with decreasing radiation frequency. These results are well described by the developed phenomenological and microscopic theories. We show that the THz radiation-induced electric current originates from microscopic mechanisms such as skew scattering, side jump, and the Berry curvature dipole.