Nonlinear optical responses in multiorbital topological superconductors

Abstract

We theoretically study first- and second-order optical responses in a transition-metal dichalcogenide monolayer with distinct trivial, nodal, and time-reversal invariant topological superconducting (TRITOPS) phases. We show that the second-order dc response, also known as the photogalvanic response, contains signatures for differentiating these phases while the first-order optical response does not. We find that the high-frequency photogalvanic response is insensitive to the phase of the system, while the low-frequency response exhibits features distinguishing the three phases. At zero doping, corresponding to an electron filling in which the Fermi level lies at nodal points, there are opposite sign zero-frequency divergences in the response when approaching the nodal phase boundaries from the trivial and the TRITOPS phases. In the trivial phase, both the high-frequency and low-frequency response of the system are negative, but in the TRITOPS phase the low-frequency response becomes positive while the high-frequency response remains negative. Furthermore, since phase transitions are controlled by the Rashba spin-orbit coupling and the ratio of intraorbital and interorbital paring amplitudes, our results not only help distinguish the phases but they can also provide an estimate of the pairing amplitudes based on the photogalvanic response of the system.

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