Nonlinear optical conductivity of a two-band crystal I

TL;DR

This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the nonlinear optical conductivity in a two-band crystal, offering formulas that simplify calculations and reveal universal frequency dependencies, with applications to semiconductors and graphene.

Contribution

It introduces a unified integral-based framework for calculating second and third order nonlinear optical conductivities in two-band models, including Fermi surface effects.

Findings

Universal frequency dependence of Fermi surface contributions can be tuned by doping.

Step functions determine chemical potential effects in electron-hole symmetric insulators.

Analytical expressions derived for simple models like semiconductors and graphene.

Abstract

The structure of the electronic nonlinear optical conductivity is elucidated in a detailed study of the time-reversal symmetric two-band model. The nonlinear conductivity is decomposed as a sum of contributions related with different regions of the First Brillouin Zone, defined by single or multiphoton resonances. All contributions are written in terms of the same integrals, which contain all information specific to the particular model under study. In this way, ready-to-use formulas are provided that reduce the often tedious calculations of the second and third order optical conductivity to the evaluation of a small set of similar integrals. In the scenario where charge carriers are present prior to optical excitation, Fermi surface contributions must also be considered and are shown to have an universal frequency dependence, tunable by doping. General characteristics are made evident in this type of resonance-based analysis: the existence of step functions that determine the chemical potential dependence of electron-hole symmetric insulators; the determination of the imaginary part by Hilbert transforms, simpler than those of the nonlinear Kramers-Kr\"{o}nig relations; the absence of Drude peaks in the diagonal elements of the second order conductivity, among others. As examples, analytical expressions are derived for the nonlinear conductivities of some simple systems: a very basic model of direct gap semiconductors and the Dirac fermions of monolayer graphene.