Theoretical study of armchair single-walled carbon nanotubes in the presence of a strong laser field: high harmonic generation

Abstract

The nonlinear optical response of armchair single-walled carbon nanotubes under high-intensity laser irradiation is investigated theoretically and numerically because the generation of high harmonics requires a strong laser field and come from the nonlinear motion of π electrons in carbon nanotubes. A nonperturbative approach is performed to investigate the effect of group velocity on the high harmonics spectrum by nanotubes. A set of the quantum kinetic equations is derived, which includes coupled equations for the density matrix. By solving the density matrix and the current density equations numerically, we have studied the high-order harmonic generation from metallic carbon nanotubes driven by an electromagnetic external field.