Giant modulation of optical nonlinearity by Floquet engineering

Jun-Yi Shan; M Ye; H Chu; Sungmin Lee; Je-Geun Park; L Balents; D Hsieh

doi:10.1038/s41586-021-04051-8

Giant modulation of optical nonlinearity by Floquet engineering

Nature. 2021 Dec;600(7888):235-239. doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-04051-8. Epub 2021 Dec 8.

Authors

Jun-Yi Shan^{1

2}, M Ye³, H Chu^{1

2}, Sungmin Lee⁴, Je-Geun Park^{4

5

6}, L Balents³, D Hsieh^{7

8}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
² Institute for Quantum Information and Matter, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
³ Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.
⁴ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
⁵ Center for Quantum Materials, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
⁶ Institute of Applied Physics, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
⁷ Department of Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA. dhsieh@caltech.edu.
⁸ Institute for Quantum Information and Matter, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA. dhsieh@caltech.edu.

PMID: 34880426
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-04051-8

Abstract

Strong periodic driving with light offers the potential to coherently manipulate the properties of quantum materials on ultrafast timescales. Recently, strategies have emerged to drastically alter electronic and magnetic properties by optically inducing non-trivial band topologies^1-6, emergent spin interactions^7-11 and even superconductivity¹². However, the prospects and methods of coherently engineering optical properties on demand are far less understood¹³. Here we demonstrate coherent control and giant modulation of optical nonlinearity in a van der Waals layered magnetic insulator, manganese phosphorus trisulfide (MnPS₃). By driving far off-resonance from the lowest on-site manganese d-d transition, we observe a coherent on-off switching of its optical second harmonic generation efficiency on the timescale of 100 femtoseconds with no measurable dissipation. At driving electric fields of the order of 10⁹ volts per metre, the on-off ratio exceeds 10, which is limited only by the sample damage threshold. Floquet theory calculations¹⁴ based on a single-ion model of MnPS₃ are able to reproduce the measured driving field amplitude and polarization dependence of the effect. Our approach can be applied to a broad range of insulating materials and could lead to dynamically designed nonlinear optical elements.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.