The non-linear optical response of clean undoped semiconductors contains a static intrinsic term - the shift current. We have recently shown that when Kramers degeneracy is lifted, the second order dc response of doped topological materials and semimetals to an ac electric field becomes large at the interband absorption threshold in clean nearly isotropic materials. We refer to this effect, which results from an interesting interplay between inter-band coherence and intra-band occupation number response, as the resonant photovoltaic effect (RPE). We evaluate the RPE for a model of the surface states of a Bi2Te3 coupled to in-plane magnetic order due to either bulk doping or proximity coupling.

Dimitrie Culcer obtained his PhD from the University of Texas at Austin in 2005. He worked as a postdoctoral research fellow first at Argonne National Laboratory between 2006-2008, and subsequently at the University of Maryland, College Park, 2008-2010. He became a faculty member at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei in 2010, where he was a member of the International Center for Quantum Design of Functional Materials. In 2013 he moved to the University of New South Wales in Sydney where he is currently an Associate Professor.
Dimi Culcer's research interests include quantum information and computation, spin-orbit coupling and topological effects in condensed matter physics, quantum transport theory and electron-electron interaction effects, in particular the interplay of topological effects with disorder. He is actively working in all these areas.