SHIFT_CURRENT

introduction

The shift current is an intrinsic contribution to the bulk photovoltaic effect (BPVE). It describes the photocurrent generated by light illumination on homogeneous non-centrosymmetric crystals. The shift current is a second-order optical response. It can be expressed as a DC current, generated by a monochromatic photoelectric field \(\mathbf{E}(t) = \mathbf{E}(\omega)\mathrm{e}^{i\omega t} + \mathbf{E}(-\omega)\mathrm{e}^{-i\omega t}\), where

\[ J^{a} = 2 \sigma^{abc}(0; \omega, -\omega) E_{b}(\omega) E_{c}(-\omega). \]

Here, \(a, b, c = x, y, z\), and \(\sigma^{abc}(0; \omega, -\omega)\) is the shift current tensor,

\[ \sigma^{abc}(0 ; \omega,-\omega) = \frac{\pi e^3}{\hbar^2} \int \frac{d \mathbf{k}}{8 \pi^3} \sum_{n, m} f_{nm} \mathrm{Im}\left[ I_{mn}^{abc} + I_{mn}^{acb} \right] \delta\left(\omega_{m n}-\omega\right) \]

where \(I_{mn}^{abc} = r_{mn}^{b} r_{nm;a}^{c}\), \(r_{nm}^a\) is the inter-band dipole matrix, and \(r_{nm; a}^b\) is the generalized derivative of the dipole matrix.

Detailed descriptions can be found in Second-order optical response in semiconductors.

example

Here, we provide an example of calculating the shift current conductivity of the monolayer WS\(_2\) (refer to folder examples/WS2).

The Input file is:

INPUT_PARAMETERS
{
    nspin                   1
    package                 ABACUS
    fermi_energy            0.3484302262859574
    fermi_energy_unit       eV
    HR_route                data-HR-sparse_SPIN0.csr
    SR_route                data-SR-sparse_SPIN0.csr
    rR_route                data-rR-sparse.csr
    HR_unit                 Ry
    rR_unit                 Bohr
}

LATTICE
{
    lattice_constant        1.8897162
    lattice_constant_unit   Bohr
    lattice_vector
    3.183820900165   0.0              0.0            
   -1.591910450082   2.757269780643   0.0            
    0.0              0.0              20.086904001384
}

SHIFT_CURRENT
{
    occ_band                13
    omega                   0   4
    domega                  0.01
    smearing_method         1
    eta                     0.1
    grid                    1000 1000 1
}

occ_band: Used to specify the occupied energy band of an insulator or semiconductor. Currently this function can only calculate insulators or semiconductors.

omega: Specifies the photon energy, the unit is eV.

domega: Specifies the energy interval of the omega.

eta: Specify the parameters of Gaussian smearing.

grid: Specifies the uniform k-point grid used to calculate the shift current.

Upon completion of the task, two essential files are generated in the Out/Shift_Current folder. These files include shift_current.dat and plot_shift_current.py.