Circular photocurrent in Ag/Pd resistive films upon excitation by femtosecond laser pulses

This paper presents the results of the experimental investigation of the generation of nanosecond photocurrent pulses in silver–palladium (Ag/Pd) resistive films under excitation by laser pulses with a duration of 120 fs at a wavelength of 795 nm. The photocurrent was detected in the direction perpendicular to the plane of incidence of the laser beam on the film. The 20-$\mu$m-thick films under investigation were a porous polycrystalline material consisting predominantly of nanocrystallites of the palladium oxide PdO and the Ag–Pd solid solution. The direction of the photocurrent observed in the films depends on the sign of the circular polarization of the incident radiation. It was found that the observed photocurrent depends on the angle of incidence in accordance with the odd law and consists of the circular and linear contributions, which are dependent on and independent of the sign of the circular polarization, respectively. It was shown that the circular photocurrent is significantly higher than the linear photocurrent. It was established that, for both the circular and linear polarizations, the photocurrent is directly proportional to the power of the excitation radiation. For the linearly polarized laser radiation, the photocurrent depends on the polarization angle in accordance with the odd law. The regularities revealed are consistent with the mechanism of the generation of transverse photocurrent with the photon drag effect.