Theory for shear displacement by light-induced Raman force in bilayer graphene

Abstract

Coherent excitation of shear phonons in van der Waals layered materials is a nondestructive mechanism to fine-tune the lattice structure and the electronic state of the system. We develop a diagrammatic theory for the displacive Raman force and apply it to the shear phonon's dynamics. We obtain a noticeable light-induced Raman force of the order of F∼10-100nN/nm2 leading to a large rectified shear displacement Q0 in bilayer graphene. In analogy to the photogalvanic effect, we decompose the Raman force to circular and linear components where the former vanishes due to the lattice symmetry in bilayer graphene. We show that the laser frequency and polarization can effectively tune Q0 in different electronic doping, temperature, and scattering rates. The finite rectified shear displacement induces a Dirac crossing pair in the low-energy dispersion that photoemission spectroscopy can probe. Our systematic formalism of Raman force can simulate the coherent manipulation of stacking order in the heterostructures of layered materials by laser irradiation.