Ultrafast optical Faraday effect in transparent solids

TL;DR

This paper predicts an ultrafast optical Faraday effect in transparent solids, where circularly polarized pulses induce transient chirality, enabling ultrafast control of polarization states for potential applications in photonics.

Contribution

It introduces a theoretical prediction of a strong-field ultrafast optical Faraday effect in transparent dielectrics, a phenomenon not previously described.

Findings

Transient chirality induced by circularly polarized pulses

Ultrafast vanishing of induced chirality beyond pulse duration

Potential for ultrafast polarization modulation

Abstract

We predict a strong-field ultrafast optical Faraday effect, where a circularly polarized ultrashort optical pulse induces transient chirality in an achiral transparent dielectric. This effect is attractive for time-resolved measurements because it gives access to the non-instantaneity of the nonlinear medium response, and also because it represents relaxation of time-reversal symmetry by all-optical means. We propose probing the induced transient chirality with a weak linearly polarized ultraviolet pulse that is shorter than the near-infrared pump pulse. The predicted effects are ultrafast: the induced chirality vanishes for probe delays exceeding the duration of the near-infrared pulse. This opens up possibilities for applications in ultrafast circular-polarization modulators and analyzers.