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Circular dichroism in higher-order harmonic generation: Heralding topological phases and transitions in Chern insulators

Alexis Chacón1,2,*, Dasol Kim2, Wei Zhu1, Shane P. Kelly1,3, Alexandre Dauphin4, Emilio Pisanty4, Andrew S. Maxwell4,5, Antonio Picón4,6, Marcelo F. Ciappina4,7,8,9 et al.

Dong Eon Kim2, Christopher Ticknor1, Avadh Saxena1, and Maciej Lewenstein4,10

  • 1Center for Nonlinear Studies and Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA
  • 2Department of Physics and Center for Attosecond Science and Technology, POSTECH, 7 Pohang 37673, South Korea and Max Planck POSTECH/KOREA Research Initiative, Pohang, 37673, South Korea
  • 3Physics and Astronomy Department, University of California Riverside, Riverside, California 92521, USA
  • 4ICFO – Institut de Ciencies Fotoniques, The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, 08860 Castelldefels (Barcelona), Spain
  • 5Department of Physics & Astronomy, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom
  • 6Departamento de Química, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049 Madrid, Spain
  • 7Institute of Physics of the ASCR, ELI-Beamlines project, Na Slovance 2, 182 21 Prague, Czech Republic
  • 8Physics Program, Guangdong Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Shantou, Guangdong 515063, China
  • 9Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel
  • 10ICREA, Pg. Lluís Companys 23, 08010 Barcelona, Spain

  • *achacon@postech.ac.kr
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Phys. Rev. B 102, 134115 – Published 21 October, 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.102.134115

Abstract

Topological materials are of interest to both fundamental science and advanced technologies because topological states are robust with respect to perturbations and dissipation. Experimental detection of topological invariants is thus in great demand but remains extremely challenging. Ultrafast laser-matter interactions, and in particular high-harmonic generation, meanwhile, were proposed several years ago as tools to explore the structural and dynamical properties of various matter targets. Here we show that the high-harmonic emission signal produced by a circularly polarized laser contains signatures of topological phases and transitions in the paradigmatic Haldane model. In addition to clear shifts of the overall emissivity and harmonic cutoff, the high-harmonic emission shows a unique circular dichroism, which exhibits clear changes in behavior at the topological phase boundary. Our findings pave the way to understand fundamental questions about the ultrafast electron-hole pair dynamics in topological materials via nonlinear high-harmonic generation spectroscopy.

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Phys. Rev. B 102, 134115– Published 21 October, 2020
  • Received 15 July 2020
  • Accepted 2 September 2020
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