Excitonic Enhancement of Squeezed Light in Quantum-Optical High-Harmonic Generation from a Mott Insulator
Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 043603 – Published 24 July, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/wyk5-k8tk
Abstract
The strong-field induced generation of nonclassical states of light is not only a subject of fundamental research but also has potential usage in quantum information science and technology. The emerging field of strong-field quantum optics has developed ways of generating nonclassical states of light from the process of high-harmonic generation (HHG) at much wider frequency ranges and intensities than is typical for quantum optics. Here, we study the response from an exciton in a Mott-insulating system, using the extended Hubbard model. We find that the exciton plays a key role in the nonclassical response and generates squeezing at the exciton energy, showing a clear mapping between the quantum nature of the electronic system and the quantum nature of emitted radiation. We relate this nonclassical response to the nonvanishing time correlations of the current operator in the system. Our work defines a direction for experimental work to search for squeezed light from HHG in a spectrally confined region defined by the exciton energy.
Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)
- Atomic & molecular processes in external fields
- Doublon
- Excitons
- Holon
- Light-matter interaction
- Nonlinear optics
- Quantum description of light-matter interaction
- Quantum optics
- Quantum states of light
- Strong electromagnetic field effects
- Ultrafast phenomena
- 1-dimensional systems
- Quantum many-body systems
- Electron-correlation calculations
- Extended Hubbard model
- Schroedinger equation