Simulating strong-field electron-hole dynamics in solids probed by attosecond transient absorption spectroscopy

TL;DR

This study models ultrafast electron-hole dynamics in wide-bandgap solids under intense laser fields, comparing computational approaches to predict attosecond transient absorption signals.

Contribution

It validates the semiconductor Bloch equations against ab-initio TDDFT for simulating strong-field electron dynamics in solids.

Findings

Both methods capture spectral features in ATAS signals.

Good agreement validates the SBE model for strong-field dynamics.

Predicted ATAS signals are experimentally accessible.

Abstract

We investigate the ultrafast electron dynamics of a model of a wide-bandgap material with inner, valence, and conduction bands excited by an intense few-femtosecond pump and monitored by a delayed attosecond extreme-ultraviolet probe pulse. Complementary computational methods are utilized and compared, based on the semiconductor Bloch equations (SBEs) and time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT). TDDFT is employed to study a finite-size system, while the SBEs are utilized to investigate the corresponding solid with periodic boundary conditions imposed, with the crystal-momentum-dependent energy bands and interband couplings calculated in the parallel-transport structure gauge. The resulting strong-field electron dynamics are employed to predict experimentally accessible attosecond transient absorption spectroscopy (ATAS) signals as a function of the probe-pulse frequency and pump-probe interpulse delay. Both simulation protocols similarly capture the time-delay-dependent spectral features in the ATAS signals. The very good agreement between our TDDFT and SBE-based results allows us to interpret the ab-initio TDDFT simulations in terms of SBEs' interband couplings, validating our SBE-based model and corroborating its conclusions.