Piezo-optic effect of high-harmonic generation in semiconductors

TL;DR

This paper explores how shear strain in semiconductors like GaAs influences high-harmonic generation, revealing optical activity and potential for strain-based control of nonlinear optical responses.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of piezo-optic effects in HHG within strained semiconductors, highlighting strain engineering as a tool for nonlinear optics control.

Findings

Optical activity varies with polarization in strained GaAs.

Higher harmonics show increased sensitivity to strain.

Strain can be used to control HHG reciprocity.

Abstract

We theoretically investigate the piezo-optic effect of high-harmonic generation (HHG) in shear-strained semiconductors. By focusing on a typical semiconductor, GaAs, we show that there is optical activity, meaning different responses to right-handed and left-handed elliptically polarized electric fields. We also show that this optical activity is more pronounced for higher harmonics whose perturbative order exceeds the band-gap energy. These findings point to a useful pathway for strain engineering of nonlinear optics to control the reciprocity of HHG.