Interaction of carrier envelope phase-stable laser pulses with graphene: the transition from the weak-field to the strong-field regime

Abstract

Ultrafast control of electron dynamics in solid state systems has recently found particular attention. By increasing the electric field strength of laser pulses, the light–matter interaction in solids might turn from a perturbative into a novel non-perturbative regime, where interband transitions from the valence to the conduction band become strongly affected by intraband motion. We have demonstrated experimentally and numerically that this combined dynamics can be controlled in graphene with the electric field waveform of phase-stabilized few-cycle laser pulses (Higuchi et al 2017 Nature 550 224–8; Heide et al 2018 Phys. Rev. Lett. 121 207401). Here we show new experimental data and matching simulation results at comparably low optical fields, which allows us to focus on the highly interesting transition regime where the light–matter interaction turns from perturbative to non-perturbative. We find a 5th order power-law scaling of the laser induced waveform-dependent current at low optical fields, which breaks down for higher optical fields, indicating the transition.

Keywords

• light-field-driven currents
• graphene
• coherent control
• Landau–Zener transition
• strong-field physics