High laser harmonics induced by the Berry curvature in time-reversal invariant materials (2005.09449v2)

Abstract: A new nonlinear scheme of high harmonics generation in a wide class of time-reversal invariant materials with broken spatial inversion symmetry (where recently the nonlinear Hall effect has been established) due to the nontrivial topology of bands is proposed. A microscopic quasiclassical theory describing the nonperturbative optical response of pseudo-relativistic electrons with nonzero Berry curvature of bands to a strong laser field is developed. We analyze the harmonic content of the induced current and show that one can decouple induced laser harmonics solely by the Berry curvature of bands. We also study the dependence of the nonlinear response on the driving wave and system parameters.