Berry Curvature Dipole Induced Giant Mid-Infrared Second-Harmonic Generation in 2D Weyl Semiconductor

Abstract

Due to its inversion-broken triple helix structure and the nature of Weyl semiconductor, 2D Tellurene (2D Te) is promising to possess a strong nonlinear optical response in the infrared region, which is rarely reported in 2D materials. Here, a giant nonlinear infrared response induced by large Berry curvature dipole (BCD) is demonstrated in the Weyl semiconductor 2D Te. Ultrahigh second-harmonic generation response is acquired from 2D Te with a large second-order nonlinear optical susceptibility (χ⁽²⁾ ), which is up to 23.3 times higher than that of monolayer MoS₂ in the range of 700-1500 nm. Notably, distinct from other 2D nonlinear semiconductors, χ⁽²⁾ of 2D Te increases extraordinarily with increasing wavelength and reaches up to 5.58 nm V^-1 at ≈2300 nm, which is the best infrared performance among the reported 2D nonlinear materials. Large χ⁽²⁾ of 2D Te also enables the high-intensity sum-frequency generation with an ultralow continuous-wave (CW) pump power. Theoretical calculations reveal that the exceptional performance is attributed to the presence of large BCD located at the Weyl points of 2D Te. These results unravel a new linkage between Weyl semiconductor and strong optical nonlinear responses, rendering 2D Te a competitive candidate for highly efficient nonlinear 2D semiconductors in the infrared region.

Keywords: 2D materials; Berry curvature dipoles; second-harmonic generation; tellurium; weyl semiconductors.