Photogalvanic Effect in Silicene

Abstract Silicene has introduced itself as an outstanding novel material, which seeks its meritorious place among common spintronic devices like Cu and Ag. In this work, photogalvanic effect in silicene is studied within the semi-classical approach and beyond Dirac point approximation. Normal electric field plays the role of effective pseudo-magnetic field which breaks the inversion symmetry and splits the conduction and valence bands. The interplay between this external field and intrinsic spin-orbit coupling provides spin-valley locking in silicene. Spin-valley locking in silicene makes this material superior to its carbon counterpart, graphene. Since the absorption of the polarized photons is not equivalent at both of the valleys, spin-valley locking leads to a spin-polarized photocurrent injection.