Probing structural chirality of crystals using high-order harmonic generation in solids

Abstract

Structural chirality plays an important role in solid-state physics and leads to a variety of novel physics. The feasibility of probing structural chirality of crystals using high harmonic generation in solids is explored in this work. Through first-principles calculations based on the time-dependent density-functional theory framework, we demonstrate that evident circular dichroism (CD) effects can be induced in the high harmonic spectra from a chiral crystal - bulk tellurium. The CD signal reverses for crystals with opposite structural chirality. Besides, the high harmonic spectroscopy also provides an all-optical method for probing lattice symmetry properties and determining orientation of the tellurium crystal.