The density matrix picture of laser coherent control current

Abstract

The physical substance of the coherent control current and the optical rectification have been analyzed based on density matrix perturbation theory. The analytical results demonstrate that they arise from the real and virtual manifestations of the same nonlinear process associated with diagonal and non-diagonal density matrix. And in terms of polarization, they respectively arise from the intraband and interband polarizations. Both the evolution of the coherent control current exited by ultrafast laser pulse and its dependence on frequency have been studied in time and frequency domains. In order to get an explicit knowledge of intraband polarization and the origination of the coherent control current, we have investigated the initial photo-carriers momentum distribution. The ultrafast decay of the polar momentum population in order of tens of femtosends is given to illustrate its instantaneous optical response.