First principles real-time time dependent density functional theory (rt-TDDFT) calculations reveal the existence of ballistic photocurrents generated by Coulomb scattering, which has not previously been considered as a mechanism for the bulk photovoltaic effect. With monolayer GeS as an example, it is predicted that ballistic currents can be comparable to shift currents under experimentally accessible conditions.
@article{arxiv.2408.06320,
title = {Dynamics of ballistic photocurrents driven by Coulomb scattering},
author = {Liang Z. Tan and Xavier Andrade and Sangeeta Rajpurohit and Alfredo A. Correa and Tadashi Ogitsu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2408.06320},
year = {2026}
}