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Effects of zero-point motion on the high harmonic generation spectrum of solids

Aday Cárdenas1, David N. Purschke2, Graham G. Brown3, Pablo San-Jose1, Rui E. F. Silva1,3, and Álvaro Jiménez-Galán1,3,*

  • *Contact author: alvaro.jimenez@csic.es
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Phys. Rev. B 113, 184310 – Published 11 May, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/msy5-4yxd

Abstract

The interpretation of high harmonic generation (HHG) in solids typically relies on phenomenological dephasing times far shorter than what is expected from microscopic scattering processes. Here we show that zero-point fluctuations associated with optical phonons naturally suppress long-range electronic coherences and generate clean harmonic spectra without introducing ad hoc decoherence parameters. Using a one-dimensional semiconductor composed of two distinct sites per unit cell and realistic phonon amplitudes, we demonstrate that random per-site optical-phonon jitter reproduces the spectral sharpening typically attributed to ultrafast T2 dephasing. In contrast, acoustic phonons and local strain, whose distortions are correlated over nanometer scales, produce negligible spectral cleaning. We further show that such long-range site coherence leads to carrier-envelope-phase (CEP)-dependent effects in the HHG spectrum driven by long pulses, but these effects are lost once optical-phonon-induced decoherence is included. Our results (i) identify optical zero-point motion as a key mechanism governing coherence in solid-state HHG, (ii) demonstrate that it can be qualitatively modeled in periodic solids through site-distance-dependent dephasing, and (iii) suggest that CEP-resolved measurements can probe electronic coherence lengths and atomic fluctuations in crystalline materials.

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Phys. Rev. B 113, 184310– Published 11 May, 2026
  • Received 3 December 2025
  • Revised 26 February 2026
  • Accepted 26 March 2026
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