Photon drag effect (PDE) and surface photogalvanic effect (SPGE) can be observed in centrosymmetric media and manifest themselves in photocurrents, the magnitude and polarity of which depend on wavevector and polarization of the excitation laser beam. PDE photocurrent originates from the transfer of the photon momentum to a free charge carrier, while SPGE photocurrent is due to diffuse scattering of the photoexcited carriers in the subsurface layer. However, despite the different underlying physical mechanisms, these photocurrents have almost indistinguishable dependencies on the polarization and the angle of incidence of the excitation laser beam. In this paper, we observe for the first time a competition between PDE and SPGE in the film containing metal (Ag-Pd) and semiconductor (PdO) nanocrystallites. We show that, depending on the angle of incidence, polarization azimuth and wavelength of the excitation laser beam, the interplay of the PDE and SPGE leads to the generation of either monopolar or bipolar nanosecond current pulses. The experiments performed allow us to visualize the contributions both these effects and obtain light-to-current conversion efficiency in a wide spectral range. Our experimental findings can be employed to control the magnitude and polarity of the light-induced current by polarization of the excitation laser beam.

We report on the observation of the helicity-dependent photoresponse of the 20-μm-thick silver–palladium (Ag/Pd) nanocomposite films. In the experiment, 120 fs pulses of Ti:S laser induced in the film an electric current perpendicular to the incidence plane. The photoinduced current is a linear function of the incident beam power, and its sign depends on the beam polarization and angle of incidence. In particular, the current is zero for the p- and s-polarized beams, while its sign is opposite for the right- and left-circularly polarized beams. By comparing experimental results with theoretical analysis, we show that the photoresponse of the Ag/Pd nanocomposite originates from the photon drag effect.

Silver-palladium (Ag/Pd) films were grown by thick-film technology using a resistive paste consisting of Pd, Ag2O, and glass on ceramic substrates at burning temperatures of 878, 1013, and 1113 K....

We report excitation of the spin-polarized currents in CuSe nanocrystalline films and demonstrate that the inversion of the excitation photon helicity reverses the direction of the photocurrent propagating perpendicular to the plane of incidence. By performing measurements of the photocurrent propagating both along and perpendicular to the plane of incidence, we show that the observed spin-polarized currents originate from the circular surface photogalvanic effect (C-SPGE). In contrast to the conventional circular photogalvanic effect, which is associated with spin–orbit interaction and can be observed in gyrotropic media, the C-SPGE originates from the scattering of the spin-polarized charge carriers on the surface. We demonstrate that in CuSe films, the C-SPGE gives rise to the photon helicity sensitive photoresponse, making this material attractive for optoelectronics and spintronics applications.

The surface circular photogalvanic effect (CPGE) at a laser wavelength of 1064 nm was observed for the first time in silver-palladium resistors fabricated by a thick-film technology. The CPGE...