Laser-driven parametric instability and generation of entangled photon-plasmon states in graphene and topological insulators

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that a strong infrared laser can induce parametric instability in graphene and topological insulators, leading to the generation of entangled photon-plasmon states through nonlinear interactions.

Contribution

It reveals a novel nonlinear mechanism in graphene and topological insulators enabling entangled photon-plasmon pair generation via laser-induced parametric instability.

Findings

Efficient generation of THz surface plasmons in graphene.

Quantum entanglement between idler photons and surface plasmons.

Identification of a second-order nonlinear response driven by spatial dispersion.

Abstract

We show that a strong infrared laser beam obliquely incident on graphene can experience a parametric instability with respect to decay into lower-frequency (idler) photons and THz surface plasmons. The instability is due to a strong in-plane second-order nonlinear response of graphene which originates from its spatial dispersion. The parametric decay leads to efficient generation of THz plasmons and gives rise to quantum entanglement of idler photons and surface plasmon states. A similar process can be supported by surface states of topological insulators such as Bi$_2$Se$_3$.