Conduction band population in graphene in ultrashort strong laser field: Case of massive Dirac particles

Abstract

The Dirac-like quasiparticles in honeycomb graphene lattice are taken to possess a non-zero effective mass. The charge carriers involve to interact with a femtosecond strong laser pulse. Due to the scattering time of electrons in graphene ([Formula: see text]10–100 fs), the one femtosecond optical pulse is used to establish the coherence effect and, consequently, it can be realized to use the time-dependent Schrödinger equation for electron coupled with strong electromagnetic field. Generalized wave vector of relativistic electrons interacting with electric field of laser pulse causes to obtain a time-dependent electric dipole matrix element. Using the coupled differential equations of a two-state system of graphene, the density of probability of population transition between valence (VB) and conduction bands (CB) of gapped graphene is calculated. In particular, the effect of bandgap energy on dipole matrix elements at the Dirac points and resulting CB population (CBP) is investigated. The irreversible electron dynamics is achieved when the optical pulse end. Increasing the energy gap of graphene results in decreasing the maximum CBP.