Few-cycle lightwave-driven currents in a semiconductor at high repetition rate

Summary, in English

When an intense, few-cycle light pulse impinges on a dielectric or semiconductor material, the electric field will interact nonlinearly with the solid, driving a coherent current. An asymmetry of the ultrashort, carrier-envelope-phase-stable waveform results in a net transfer of charge, which can be measured by macroscopic electric contact leads. This effect has been pioneered with extremely short, single-cycle laser pulses at low repetition rate, thus limiting the applicability of its potential for ultrafast electronics. We investigate lightwave-driven currents in gallium nitride using few-cycle laser pulses of nearly twice the duration and at a repetition rate 2 orders of magnitude higher than in previous work. We successfully simulate our experimental data with a theoretical model based on interfering multiphoton transitions, using the exact laser pulse shape retrieved from dispersion-scan measurements. Substantially increasing the repetition rate and relaxing the constraint on the pulse duration marks an important step forward toward applications of controlling currents with light.

• Author: Fabian Langer; Yen Po Liu; Zhe Ren; Vidar Flodgren; Chen Guo; Jan Vogelsang; Sara Mikaelsson; Ivan Sytcevich; Jan Ahrens; Anne L’Huillier; Cord L. Arnold; Anders Mikkelsen
• Department/s: Atomic Physics; NanoLund: Centre for Nanoscience; Synchrotron Radiation Research
• Publishing year: 2020-04-01
• Language: English
• Pages: 276-279
• Publication/Series: Optica
• Volume: 7
• Issue: 4
• Links: http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OPTICA.389150
• Document type: Journal article
• Publisher: Optical Society of America
• Topic: Atom and Molecular Physics and Optics
• Status: Published
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISSN: 2334-2536