CC BY
21PH-I-4
Strong-field interaction and high-harmonic generation in solids
N. Tancogne-Dejean1
1Max Planck Insitute for Structure and Dynamics of Matter, Theory, Hamburg, Germany
Recently the strong-field electron dynamics in solids has received a lot of attention, in particular due to the experimental observation of high-harmonic generation (HHG) in solids. The generation of high-order harmonics from atomic and molecular gases enables the production of high-energy photons and ultrashort isolated pulses and obtaining efficiently similar photon energy from solidstate systems could lead, for instance, to more compact extreme ultraviolet and soft x-ray sources. However, in order to reach this goal, the microscopic mechanisms responsible for the ultrafast electron dynamics need to be understood properly.
The dynamics associated with strong fields implies the manipulation of the electrons on the attosecond time-scale, which could lead to tremendous applications in the emerging fields of strong-field optoelectronics and petahertz electronics.
In this talk, we show that ab initio calculations, performed within the framework of real-time time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT), help unraveling the microscopic mechanisms responsible for strong-field physics in solids and two-dimensional materials. Interesting phenomena are predicted to occur when a strong laser interacts with different type of bulk materials, including correlated magnetic materials, or solids with defects. The predictive power of this approach is demonstrated by directly comparing the simulations results to the experimental data.
