Ultrafast optical currents in gapped graphene

Abstract

We theoretically study the interaction of ultrashort optical pulses with gapped graphene. Such a strong pulse results in a finite conduction band population and a corresponding electric current, both during and after the pulse. Since gapped graphene has broken inversion symmetry, it has an axial symmetry about the y -axis but not about the x-axis. We show that, in this case, if the linear pulse is polarized along the x-axis, the rectified electric current is generated in the y  direction. At the same time, the conduction band population distribution in the reciprocal space is symmetric about the x-axis. Thus, the rectified current in gapped graphene has an inter-band origin, while the intra-band contribution to the rectified current is zero.