Gate-tunable quantum pathways of high harmonic generation in graphene

Abstract

Under strong laser fields, electrons in solids radiate high-harmonic fields by travelling through quantum pathways in Bloch bands in the sub-laser-cycle timescales. Understanding these pathways in the momentum space through the high-harmonic radiation can enable an all-optical ultrafast probe to observe coherent lightwave-driven processes and measure electronic structures as recently demonstrated for semiconductors. However, such demonstration has been largely limited for semimetals because the absence of the bandgap hinders an experimental characterization of the exact pathways. In this study, by combining electrostatic control of chemical potentials with HHG measurement, we resolve quantum pathways of massless Dirac fermions in graphene under strong laser fields. Electrical modulation of HHG reveals quantum interference between the multi-photon interband excitation channels. As the light-matter interaction deviates beyond the perturbative regime, elliptically polarized laser fields efficiently drive massless Dirac fermions via an intricate coupling between the interband and intraband transitions, which is corroborated by our theoretical calculations. Our findings pave the way for strong-laser-field tomography of Dirac electrons in various quantum semimetals and their ultrafast electronics with a gate control.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Nov 04, 2022
Source ID
10.1038/s41467-022-34337-y

Entities

People

  • B. J. Kim
  • Cheol-Joo Kim
  • Gil Young Cho
  • Gunho Moon
  • Hoon Kim
  • JaeDong Lee
  • Jonghwan Kim
  • Minjeong Kim
  • Moon Jeong Park
  • Moon-Ho Jo
  • Sangho Yoon
  • Sejong Kang
  • Shinyoung Choi
  • Soonyoung Cha
  • Taeho Kim
  • Ye Won Lee
  • Youngjae Kim

Organizations

  • Air Force Office of Scientific Research
  • National Research Foundation of Korea

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Pulsed Power and Plasma Physics.
  • Quantum Dot Semiconductor Device Photonics and Graphene Optoelectronic Materials and THz Physics.

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy
  • Microelectronics
  • Microelectronics - Graphene
  • Quantum Computing
  • Quantum Science - Quantum Dots
  • Space