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Direct coupling of light to valley current

Author

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  • S. Sharma

    (Max-Born-Institut für Nichtlineare Optik und Kurzzeitspektroskopie
    Freie Universität Berlin)

  • D. Gill

    (Max-Born-Institut für Nichtlineare Optik und Kurzzeitspektroskopie)

  • J. Krishna

    (Max-Born-Institut für Nichtlineare Optik und Kurzzeitspektroskopie)

  • J. K. Dewhurst

    (Max-Planck-Institut für Mikrostrukturphysik Weinberg 2)

  • S. Shallcross

    (Max-Born-Institut für Nichtlineare Optik und Kurzzeitspektroskopie)

Abstract

The coupling of circularly polarized light to local band structure extrema ("valleys”) in two dimensional semiconductors promises a new electronics based on the valley degree of freedom. Such pulses, however, couple only to valley charge and not to the valley current, precluding lightwave manipulation of this second vital element of valleytronic devices. Contradicting this established wisdom, we show that the few cycle limit of circularly polarized light is imbued with an emergent vectorial character that allows direct coupling to the valley current. The underlying physical mechanism involves the emergence of a momentum space valley dipole, the orientation and magnitude of which allows complete control over the direction and magnitude of the valley current. We demonstrate this effect via minimal tight-binding models both for the visible spectrum gaps of the transition metal dichalcogenides (generation time ~ 1 fs) as well as the infrared gaps of biased bilayer graphene ( ~ 14 fs); we further verify our findings with state-of-the-art time-dependent density functional theory incorporating transient excitonic effects. Our findings both mark a striking example of emergent physics in the ultrafast limit of light-matter coupling, as well as allowing the creation of valley currents on time scales that challenge quantum decoherence in matter.

Suggested Citation

  • S. Sharma & D. Gill & J. Krishna & J. K. Dewhurst & S. Shallcross, 2024. "Direct coupling of light to valley current," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-024-51968-5
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-51968-5
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Agustin Schiffrin & Tim Paasch-Colberg & Nicholas Karpowicz & Vadym Apalkov & Daniel Gerster & Sascha Mühlbrandt & Michael Korbman & Joachim Reichert & Martin Schultze & Simon Holzner & Johannes V. Ba, 2013. "Optical-field-induced current in dielectrics," Nature, Nature, vol. 493(7430), pages 70-74, January.
    2. F. Langer & C. P. Schmid & S. Schlauderer & M. Gmitra & J. Fabian & P. Nagler & C. Schüller & T. Korn & P. G. Hawkins & J. T. Steiner & U. Huttner & S. W. Koch & M. Kira & R. Huber, 2018. "Lightwave valleytronics in a monolayer of tungsten diselenide," Nature, Nature, vol. 557(7703), pages 76-80, May.
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