Circularly polarized extreme ultraviolet high harmonic generation in graphene

Abstract

Circularly polarized extreme ultraviolet (XUV) radiation is highly interesting for investigation of chirality-sensitive light-matter interactions. Recent breakthroughs have enabled generation of such light sources via high harmonic generation (HHG) from rare gases. There is a growing interest in extending HHG medium from gases to solids, especially to 2D materials, as they hold great promise to develop ultra-compact solid-state photonic devices and provide insights into electronic properties of the materials themselves. However, HHG in graphene driven by terahertz to mid-infrared fields reported so far only generate low harmonic orders, and furthermore no harmonics driven by circularly polarized lasers. Here, using first-principles simulations within a time-dependent density-functional theory framework, we show that it is possible to generate HHG extending to the XUV spectral region in monolayer extended graphene excited by near-infrared lasers. Moreover, we demonstrate that a single circularly polarized driver is enough to ensure HHG in graphene with circular polarization. The corresponding spectra reflect the six-fold rotational symmetry of the graphene crystal. Extending HHG in graphene to the XUV spectral regime and realizing circular polarization represent an important step towards the development of novel nanoscale attosecond photonic devices and numerous applications such as spectroscopic investigation and nanoscale imaging of ultrafast chiral and spin dynamics in graphene and other 2D materials.

High harmonic generation in graphene–boron nitride heterostructures

“…Thus the G/hBN heterostructure as a new layered material combines and extends the HHG properties of the constituent layers. Apart from these, by orienting the linearly polarized laser field along the zigzag and armchair directions, we have observed anisotropic harmonic emission in G/hBN, similar to that being reported in graphene 28 and hBN. 36…”

“…High harmonic generation (HHG) in 2D materials has attracted much attention, alongside the emergence of the new research frontier of HHG in solids, 4,5 which is of great importance for the exploration of strong-field physics in condensed matter systems [6][7][8][9][10][11] and for the development of novel ultrafast optoelectronic and photonic applications. [12][13][14][15][16] HHG in graphene, [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28] silicene, 29 black phosphorous, 30 transition metal dichalcogenides, [31][32][33][34] and hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) [35][36][37] has been investigated theoretically and/or experimentally. Yet, these studies only focus on 2D materials in the form of monolayers or multilayers composed of the same material.…”

Strong-field nonlinear optical properties of monolayer black phosphorus

“…Current research of HHG in 2D materials has been primarily focused on graphene, [64][65][66][67][72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82][83] the most known prototype atomically thin material. Besides, studies of HHG in silicene, 84 hBN, 68,70 and MoS 2 63,85 have also been reported.…”

The use of an adaptive mesh based on a quad tree for modeling the final state of a quantum field system under pulsed external action

“…Моделирование процессов отклика графена на действие внешнего электрического поля позволяет оценивать характеристики перспективных решений на базе этого материала для большого диапазона частот, интенсивностей и длительностей импульса [1][2][3][4]. Включение внешнего поля запускает процесс рождения свободных носителей и их последующей эволюции.…”