Reciprocal-space-trajectory perspective on high-harmonic generation in solids

verfasst von: Liang Li, Pengfei Lan, Xiaosong Zhu, Tengfei Huang, Qingbin Zhang, Manfred Lein, Peixiang Lu
Abstract: We revisit the mechanism of high-harmonic generation (HHG) from solids by comparing HHG in laser fields with different ellipticities but a constant maximum amplitude. It is shown that the cutoff of HHG is strongly extended in a circularly polarized field. Moreover, the harmonic yield with large ellipticity is comparable to or even higher than that in the linearly polarized field. To understand the underlying physics, we develop a reciprocal-space-trajectory method, which explains HHG in solids by a trajectory ensemble from different ionization times and different initial states in the reciprocal space. We show that the cutoff extension is related to an additional preacceleration step prior to ionization, which has been overlooked in solids. By analyzing the trajectories and the time-frequency spectrogram, we show that the HHG in solids cannot be interpreted in terms of the classical recollision picture alone. Instead, the radiation should be described by the electron-hole interband polarization, which leads to the unusual ellipticity dependence. We propose a new four-step model to understand the mechanism of HHG in solids.
Organisationseinheit(en): Institut für Theoretische Physik
Externe Organisation(en): Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Wuhan Institute of Technology
Typ: Artikel
Journal: Physical Review Letters
Band: 122
ISSN: 0031-9007
Publikationsdatum: 14.05.2019
Publikationsstatus: Veröffentlicht
Peer-reviewed: Ja
ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete: Physik und Astronomie (insg.)
Elektronische Version(en): http://arxiv.org/pdf/1809.08109 (Zugang: Offen)
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.193901 (Zugang: Geschlossen)

BibTeX

@article{f396cd70843b4fd393a18b10b2ce9282,
title = "Reciprocal-space-trajectory perspective on high-harmonic generation in solids",
abstract = "We revisit the mechanism of high-harmonic generation (HHG) from solids by comparing HHG in laser fields with different ellipticities but a constant maximum amplitude. It is shown that the cutoff of HHG is strongly extended in a circularly polarized field. Moreover, the harmonic yield with large ellipticity is comparable to or even higher than that in the linearly polarized field. To understand the underlying physics, we develop a reciprocal-space-trajectory method, which explains HHG in solids by a trajectory ensemble from different ionization times and different initial states in the reciprocal space. We show that the cutoff extension is related to an additional preacceleration step prior to ionization, which has been overlooked in solids. By analyzing the trajectories and the time-frequency spectrogram, we show that the HHG in solids cannot be interpreted in terms of the classical recollision picture alone. Instead, the radiation should be described by the electron-hole interband polarization, which leads to the unusual ellipticity dependence. We propose a new four-step model to understand the mechanism of HHG in solids.",
author = "Liang Li and Pengfei Lan and Xiaosong Zhu and Tengfei Huang and Qingbin Zhang and Manfred Lein and Peixiang Lu",
note = "Funding Information: We gratefully acknowledge G. Vampa for valuable discussions. This work is supported by the National Key R&D Program of China under Grant No. 2017YFE0116600 and the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grants No. 11874165, No. 11627809, and No. 11774109, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.",
year = "2019",
month = may,
day = "14",
doi = "10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.193901",
language = "English",
volume = "122",
journal = "Physical Review Letters",
issn = "0031-9007",
publisher = "American Physical Society",
number = "19",
}