Photogalvanic effect in ferromagnets with a noncoplanar magnetization distribution

The photogalvanic effect in ferromagnetic materials is predicted. This is the appearance of the direct electric current in a ferromagnet sample due to a high-frequency alternating electric field. The phenomenological theory of this photogalvanic effect in ferromagnets is developed and the simplest microscopic model explaining the occurrence of the photogalvanic effect in a medium with the helical magnetic structure is proposed. The photogalvanic effect arises owing to the breaking of the symmetry with respect to the reversal of the electron motion in the medium with a noncoplanar magnetization distribution.