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Nonlinear Hall effect in bilayer WTe2 induced by strong laser fields

M. Umar Farooq1,*, Arqum Hashmi2,*, Mizuki Tani3, Kazuhiro Yabana4, Kenichi L. Ishikawa2,†, Li Huang1,5,‡, and Tomohito Otobe3,§

  • *These authors contributed equally to this work.
  • †Contact author: ishiken@n.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp
  • ‡Contact author: huangl@sustech.edu.cn
  • §Contact author: otobe.tomohito@qst.go.jp
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Phys. Rev. B 112, 035143 – Published 15 July, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/h6bd-f8pf

Abstract

The study of the interplay between the geometric nature of Bloch electrons and transverse responses under a strong field offers new opportunities for optoelectronic applications. Robust nonlinear anomalous Hall phenomena can originate in inversion asymmetric crystals with avoided band crossings due to large Berry curvature peaks. Here, we investigated the relationship between nonlinear Hall effects and nonlinear optical responses of bilayer WTe2, ranging from perturbative to nonperturbative regimes. The high-harmonic generation (HHG) spectra under a strong field clearly exhibit a plateau and energy cutoffs, i.e., an unambiguous signature of nonperturbativeness, for both longitudinal and anomalous Hall (transverse) currents, with the latter being due to the large interband Berry curvature. For the longitudinal harmonics, the intraband contributions increase with intensity, resulting in a complex interplay between interband polarization and intraband motions. If we take a comprehensive all-band perspective enabled by time-dependent density functional calculations and define the intraband current as the diagonal part of the total current density matrix obtained through the projection operation, the anomalous Hall responses are attributed to the interband processes, even in the nonperturbative regime, though the decomposition into the intra- and interband components is arbitrary rather than physically essential. Thus, Hall HHG can be crucial to understand the carrier dynamics. Our findings suggest that HHG associated with the ultrafast strong-field-driven electron dynamics holds immense potential for exploring the nonlinear high Hall responses in noncentrosymmetric semimetals.

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Phys. Rev. B 112, 035143– Published 15 July, 2025
  • Received 29 June 2024
  • Revised 1 April 2025
  • Accepted 2 June 2025
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