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

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

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

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.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)276-279
Number of pages4
JournalOptica
Volume7
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2020 Apr 1

Subject classification (UKÄ)

  • Atom and Molecular Physics and Optics

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