Chiral high-harmonic generation and spectroscopy on solid surfaces using polarization-tailored strong fields

Valleytronics in bulk MoS2 with a topologic optical field

The valley degree of freedom1-4 of electrons in materials promises routes towards energy-efficient information storage with enticing prospects for quantum information processing5-7. Current challenges in utilizing valley polarization are symmetry conditions that require monolayer structures8,9 or specific material engineering10-13, non-resonant optical control to avoid energy dissipation and the ability to switch valley polarization at optical speed. We demonstrate all-optical and non-resonant control over valley polarization using bulk MoS2, a centrosymmetric material without Berry curvature at the valleys. Our universal method utilizes spin angular momentum-shaped trefoil optical control pulses14,15 to switch the material's electronic topology and induce valley polarization by transiently breaking time and space inversion symmetry16 through a simple phase rotation. We confirm valley polarization through the transient generation of the second harmonic of a non-collinear optical probe pulse, depending on the trefoil phase rotation. The investigation shows that direct optical control over the valley degree of freedom is not limited to monolayer structures. Indeed, such control is possible for systems with an arbitrary number of layers and for bulk materials. Non-resonant valley control is universal and, at optical speeds, unlocks the possibility of engineering efficient multimaterial valleytronic devices operating on quantum coherent timescales.

Intrinsic dichroism in amorphous and crystalline solids with helical light

Amorphous solids do not exhibit long-range order due to the disordered arrangement of atoms. They lack translational and rotational symmetry on a macroscopic scale and are therefore isotropic. As a result, differential absorption of polarized light, called dichroism, is not known to exist in amorphous solids. Using helical light beams that carry orbital angular momentum as a probe, we demonstrate that dichroism is intrinsic to both amorphous and crystalline solids. We show that in the nonlinear regime, helical dichroism is responsive to the short-range order and its origin is explained in terms of interband multiphoton assisted tunneling. We also demonstrate that the helical dichroism signal is sensitive to chirality and its strength can be controlled and tuned using a superposition of OAM and Gaussian beams. Our research challenges the conventional knowledge that dichroism does not exist in amorphous solids and enables to manipulate the optical properties of solids.

Mapping Light-Dressed Floquet Bands by Highly Nonlinear Optical Excitations and Valley Polarization

Ultrafast nonlinear optical phenomena in solids have been attracting a great deal of interest as novel methodologies for the femtosecond spectroscopy of electron dynamics and control of the properties of materials. Here, we theoretically investigate strong-field nonlinear optical transitions in a prototypical two-dimensional material, hBN, and show that the k-resolved conduction band charge occupation patterns induced by an elliptically polarized laser can be understood in a multiphoton resonant picture, but, remarkably, only if using the Floquet light-dressed states instead of the undressed matter states. Our work demonstrates that Floquet dressing affects ultrafast charge dynamics and photoexcitation even from a single pump pulse and establishes a direct measurable signature for band dressing in nonlinear optical processes in solids, opening new paths for ultrafast spectroscopy and valley manipulation.

Selection rules in symmetry-broken systems by symmetries in synthetic dimensions

Selection rules are often considered a hallmark of symmetry. Here, we employ symmetry-breaking degrees of freedom as synthetic dimensions to demonstrate that symmetry-broken systems systematically exhibit a specific class of symmetries and selection rules. These selection rules constrain the scaling of a system’s observables (non-perturbatively) as it transitions from symmetric to symmetry-broken. Specifically, we drive bi-elliptical high harmonic generation (HHG), and observe that the scaling of the HHG spectrum with the pump’s ellipticities is constrained by selection rules corresponding to symmetries in synthetic dimensions. We then show the generality of this phenomenon by analyzing periodically-driven (Floquet) systems subject to two driving fields, tabulating the resulting synthetic symmetries for (2 + 1)D Floquet groups, and deriving the corresponding selection rules for high harmonic generation (HHG) and other phenomena. The presented class of symmetries and selection rules opens routes for ultrafast spectroscopy of phonon-polarization, spin-orbit coupling, symmetry-protected dark bands, and more.

The authors introduce the concept of real-synthetic symmetries and use it as a tool to derive selection rules in seemingly symmetry-broken strong-field interactions. These symmetries and their corresponding selection rules can be applied in various systems form harmonic generation to topological photonics