Sub-cycle valleytronics: control of valley polarization using few-cycle\n linearly polarized pulses

2020/05/20 by Álvaro Jiménez-Galán, Jiménez-Galán, Álvaro, Rui E. F. Silva +5 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Fiber Laser Technologies #FOS: Physical sciences #Laser-Matter Interactions and Applications #Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) #Optics (physics.optics) #Photorefractive and Nonlinear Optics

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2005.10196

openalex publication_date 2020/05/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

So far, selective excitation of a desired valley in the Brillouin zone of a\nhexagonal two-dimensional material has relied on using circularly polarized\nfields. We theoretically demonstrate a way to induce, control, and read valley\npolarization in hexagonal 2D materials on a few-femtosecond timescale using a\nfew-cycle, linearly polarized pulse with controlled carrier-envelope phase. The\nvalley pseudospin is encoded in the helicity of the emitted high harmonics of\nthe driving pulse, allowing one to avoid additional probe pulses and permitting\none to induce, manipulate and read the valley pseudospin all-optically, in one\nstep. High circularity of the harmonic emission offers a method to generate\nhighly elliptic attosecond pulses with a linearly polarized driver, in an\nall-solid-state setup.\n

Cited by

• In-plane optically tunable magnetic states in 2D materials via tailored femtosecond laser driving
• Instantaneous optical selection rule for independent control of valley currents

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