Strong field spectroscopy of many-body interactions in solids
Abstract
High-order harmonic generation (HHG) in solids offers a promising route to compact ultrafast sources of quantum light, but its efficiency and coherence are limited by ultrafast dephasing of laser-driven electron–hole polarization. Although widely described by a phenomenological coherence time, the microscopic origin of this dephasing has remained unresolved. Here, we combine wavelength-dependent HHG measurements in monolayer and bulk semiconductors with ab initio many-body calculations of electron–phonon scattering and strong-field simulations. We show that the measured wavelength scaling of the HHG yield is quantitatively reproduced only when semiconductor Bloch equations incorporate momentum-dependent dephasing derived from first principles scattering rates. The calculations reveal that strong-field-driven carriers rapidly enter regions of the Brillouin zone with enhanced electron–phonon scattering, giving rise to effective few-femtosecond dephasing. Our results establish a microscopic foundation for dephasing in solid-state HHG and provide a framework for engineering coherence in strongly driven solids for quantum photonic applications.
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BibTeX
@article{korolev2026strong,
title = {{Strong field spectroscopy of many-body interactions in solids}},
author = {Viacheslav Korolev and Thomas Lettau and Vipin Krishna and Alexander Croy and Martin Thümmler and Michael Zürch and Christian Spielmann and Maria Wächtler and Ulf Peschel and Stefanie Gräfe and Giancarlo Soavi and Daniil Kartashov},
journal = {Nature Communications},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1038/s41467-026-78716-1},
url = {https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-78716-1},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Strong field spectroscopy of many-body interactions in solids
AU - Viacheslav Korolev
AU - Thomas Lettau
AU - Vipin Krishna
AU - Alexander Croy
AU - Martin Thümmler
AU - Michael Zürch
AU - Christian Spielmann
AU - Maria Wächtler
AU - Ulf Peschel
AU - Stefanie Gräfe
AU - Giancarlo Soavi
AU - Daniil Kartashov
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/20
JO - Nature Communications
DO - 10.1038/s41467-026-78716-1
UR - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-78716-1
AB - High-order harmonic generation (HHG) in solids offers a promising route to compact ultrafast sources of quantum light, but its efficiency and coherence are limited by ultrafast dephasing of laser-driven electron–hole polarization. Although widely described by a phenomenological coherence time, the microscopic origin of this dephasing has remained unresolved. Here, we combine wavelength-dependent HHG measurements in monolayer and bulk semiconductors with ab initio many-body calculations of electron–phonon scattering and strong-field simulations. We show that the measured wavelength scaling of the HHG yield is quantitatively reproduced only when semiconductor Bloch equations incorporate momentum-dependent dephasing derived from first principles scattering rates. The calculations reveal that strong-field-driven carriers rapidly enter regions of the Brillouin zone with enhanced electron–phonon scattering, giving rise to effective few-femtosecond dephasing. Our results establish a microscopic foundation for dephasing in solid-state HHG and provide a framework for engineering coherence in strongly driven solids for quantum photonic applications.
SN - 2041-1723
ER -