Topological currents in black phosphorus with broken inversion symmetry

Abstract

We examine the nature of topological currents in black phosphorus when its inversion symmetry is deliberately broken. Here, the conduction and valence band edges are located at the $Γ$ point of the rectangular Brillouin zone, and they exhibit strong anisotropy along its two crystal axes. We will show below that these salient features lead to a linear transverse neutral topological currents, accompanied also by a non-linear transverse charge current at the Fermi surface. These topological currents are maximal when the in-plane electric field is applied along the zigzag crystal axes, but zero along the armchair direction.

5 pages, 4 figures