Research Director

Masao Nakamura

Center for Emergent Matter Science, RIKEN
Senior Research Scientist

Outline

Materials with broken inversion symmetry exhibit photocurrent generation by light irradiation, and this effect is known as the bulk photovoltaic effect. It has been revealed recently that one of the major origins of the bulk photovoltaic effect is the shift current which is related to the quantum-mechanical phase of electron. The goal of this project is to reveal the guiding principle for enhancing the bulk photovoltaic effect and develop new materials for high-efficiency photon-to-electron conversion.