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Semimetallization of dielectrics in strong optical fields
At the heart of ever growing demands for faster signal processing is ultrafast charge transport and control by electromagnetic fields in semiconductors. Intense optical fields have opened fascinating avenues for new phenomena and applications in solids. Because the period of optical fields is on the...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Publishing Group
2016
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4758039/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26888147 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep21272 |
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author | Kwon, Ojoon Paasch-Colberg, Tim Apalkov, Vadym Kim, Bum-Kyu Kim, Ju-Jin Stockman, Mark I. Kim, D. |
author_facet | Kwon, Ojoon Paasch-Colberg, Tim Apalkov, Vadym Kim, Bum-Kyu Kim, Ju-Jin Stockman, Mark I. Kim, D. |
author_sort | Kwon, Ojoon |
collection | PubMed |
description | At the heart of ever growing demands for faster signal processing is ultrafast charge transport and control by electromagnetic fields in semiconductors. Intense optical fields have opened fascinating avenues for new phenomena and applications in solids. Because the period of optical fields is on the order of a femtosecond, the current switching and its control by an optical field may pave a way to petahertz optoelectronic devices. Lately, a reversible semimetallization in fused silica on a femtosecond time scale by using a few-cycle strong field (~1 V/Å) is manifested. The strong Wannier-Stark localization and Zener-type tunneling were expected to drive this ultrafast semimetallization. Wider spread of this technology demands better understanding of whether the strong field behavior is universally similar for different dielectrics. Here we employ a carrier-envelope-phase stabilized, few-cycle strong optical field to drive the semimetallization in sapphire, calcium fluoride and quartz and to compare this phenomenon and show its remarkable similarity between them. The similarity in response of these materials, despite the distinguishable differences in their physical properties, suggests the universality of the physical picture explained by the localization of Wannier-Stark states. Our results may blaze a trail to PHz-rate optoelectronics. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4758039 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2016 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-47580392016-02-26 Semimetallization of dielectrics in strong optical fields Kwon, Ojoon Paasch-Colberg, Tim Apalkov, Vadym Kim, Bum-Kyu Kim, Ju-Jin Stockman, Mark I. Kim, D. Sci Rep Article At the heart of ever growing demands for faster signal processing is ultrafast charge transport and control by electromagnetic fields in semiconductors. Intense optical fields have opened fascinating avenues for new phenomena and applications in solids. Because the period of optical fields is on the order of a femtosecond, the current switching and its control by an optical field may pave a way to petahertz optoelectronic devices. Lately, a reversible semimetallization in fused silica on a femtosecond time scale by using a few-cycle strong field (~1 V/Å) is manifested. The strong Wannier-Stark localization and Zener-type tunneling were expected to drive this ultrafast semimetallization. Wider spread of this technology demands better understanding of whether the strong field behavior is universally similar for different dielectrics. Here we employ a carrier-envelope-phase stabilized, few-cycle strong optical field to drive the semimetallization in sapphire, calcium fluoride and quartz and to compare this phenomenon and show its remarkable similarity between them. The similarity in response of these materials, despite the distinguishable differences in their physical properties, suggests the universality of the physical picture explained by the localization of Wannier-Stark states. Our results may blaze a trail to PHz-rate optoelectronics. Nature Publishing Group 2016-02-18 /pmc/articles/PMC4758039/ /pubmed/26888147 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep21272 Text en Copyright © 2016, Macmillan Publishers Limited http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
spellingShingle | Article Kwon, Ojoon Paasch-Colberg, Tim Apalkov, Vadym Kim, Bum-Kyu Kim, Ju-Jin Stockman, Mark I. Kim, D. Semimetallization of dielectrics in strong optical fields |
title | Semimetallization of dielectrics in strong optical fields |
title_full | Semimetallization of dielectrics in strong optical fields |
title_fullStr | Semimetallization of dielectrics in strong optical fields |
title_full_unstemmed | Semimetallization of dielectrics in strong optical fields |
title_short | Semimetallization of dielectrics in strong optical fields |
title_sort | semimetallization of dielectrics in strong optical fields |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4758039/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26888147 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep21272 |
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