Generalized Conductivity Modeling and Selective Harmonic Amplification in Time-Modulated Graphene Cavities

Abstract: The selective harmonic enhancement in cavities formed by stacks of time-modulated graphene sheets and a reflecting boundary is investigated. A semi-analytic framework based on an operator formulation and the transfer matrix method is developed and validated against a modified finite-difference time-domain algorithm. The temporal dispersion of graphene is treated through both a generalized Taylor-expanded conductivity model and a reduced high-bias approximation. By employing particle swarm optimization to tune the cavity gaps, selected Floquet harmonics are engineered under distinct modulation regimes. Numerical results show strong enhancement of first-order sidebands in the high-bias regime, controlled third-order harmonic generation beyond the linear regime with an explicit trade-off between target amplification and total non-target leakage, and symmetry-induced purely even harmonic generation under zero-centered modulation.