Photoexcitation of graphene with twisted light

Abstract

We study theoretically the interaction of twisted light with graphene. The light-matter interaction matrix elements between the tight-binding states of electrons in graphene are determined near the Dirac points. We examine the dynamics of the photoexcitation process by posing the equations of motion of the density matrix and working up to second order in the field. The time evolution of the angular momentum of the photoexcited electrons and their associated photocurrents are examined in order to elucidate the mechanisms of angular momentum transfer. We find that the transfer of spin and orbital angular momentum from light to the electrons is more akin here to the case of intraband than of interband transitions in semiconductors, due to the fact that the two relevant energy bands of graphene originate from the same atomic orbitals.

18 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (14)

• The electronic properties of graphene
• Universal Dynamic Conductivity and Quantized Visible Opacity of Suspended Graphene
• Quantum interference and Klein tunneling in graphene heterojunctions
• Universal dynamical conductance in graphite
• Evidence of Klein tunneling in graphene p-n junctions
• Quantized Rotation of Atoms From Photons with Orbital Angular Momentum
• Aharonov-Bohm effect and broken valley-degeneracy in graphene rings
• Faraday effect in graphene enclosed in an optical cavity and the equation of motion method for the study of magneto-optical transport in solids
• Orthogonality catastrophe and Kondo effect in graphene
• Efficient graphene-based photodetector with two cavities
• Caustics due to Negative Refractive Index in Circular Graphene p-n Junctions
• Electron-electron interaction and charging effects in graphene quantum dots
• Dirac electrons in graphene-based quantum wires and quantum dots
• Twisted-light-induced optical transitions in semiconductors: Free-carrier quantum kinetics

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Quantum friction between graphene sheets
• Qualitative analysis of trapped Dirac fermions in graphene
• Fermionic Chern insulator from twisted light with linear polarization
• Spin and charge transport induced by a twisted light beam on a surface of a topological insulator
• Optical flux pump in the quantum Hall regime
• Two-dimensional excitons from twisted light and the fate of the photon's orbital angular momentum
• Insensitivity of spin dynamics to the orbital angular momentum transferred from twisted light to extended semiconductors
• Optical vortex probe of loop-current chirality in moiré materials