Nonperturbative Kinetic Description of Electron-Hole Excitations in Graphene in a Time Dependent Electric Field of Arbitrary Polarization

Abstract

On the basis of the well-known kinetic description of e − e + vacuum pair creation in strong electromagnetic fields in D = 3 + 1 QED we construct a nonperturbative kinetic approach to electron-hole excitations in graphene under the action of strong, time-dependent electric fields. We start from the simplest model of low-energy excitations around the Dirac points in the Brillouin zone. The corresponding kinetic equations are analyzed by nonperturbative analytical and numerical methods that allow to avoid difficulties characteristic for the perturbation theory. We consider different models for external fields acting in both, one and two dimensions. In the latter case we discuss the nonlinear interaction of the orthogonal currents in graphene which plays the role of an active nonlinear medium. In particular, this allows to govern the current in one direction by means of the electric field acting in the orthogonal direction. Investigating the polarization current we detected the existence of high frequency damped oscillations in a constant external electric field. When the electric field is abruptly turned off residual inertial oscillations of the polarization current are obtained. Further nonlinear effects are discussed.

Keywords

• graphene
• dynamic critical phenomena
• high-field and nonlinear effects