Light-induced Faraday effect from dynamical breakdown of Kleinman symmetry
Abstract
The observation of anomalously large polarization rotations in pump-probe experiments with circularly polarized light has recently challenged the conventional understanding of the inverse Faraday effect. The striking magnitude of these responses implies the generation of effective magnetic fields orders of magnitude larger than theoretical expectations, raising fundamental questions about the nature of light-induced time-reversal symmetry breaking. In this work we demonstrate that a static polarization rotation can originate entirely from the antisymmetric component of the third-order optical susceptibility, without generating a macroscopic magnetization of the material. We show that this light-induced Faraday effect is inherently dynamical, emerging when Kleinman symmetry breaks down. Using a minimal sp tight-binding model on a square lattice, we demonstrate that the light-induced Faraday response can be sizable even far from dissipative resonances. While the effect emerges at a purely electronic level, we show that resonant coupling with phonons can significantly enhance the pump-probe response. Finally, we demonstrate that the light-induced Faraday contribution can strongly exceed the magneto-optical response mediated by the inverse Faraday effect in nonmagnetic materials.
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BibTeX
@misc{sellati2026lightinduced,
title = {{Light-induced Faraday effect from dynamical breakdown of Kleinman symmetry}},
author = {Niccolò Sellati and Jacopo Fiore and Lara Benfatto},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2605.27127},
eprint = {2605.27127},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.27127},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Light-induced Faraday effect from dynamical breakdown of Kleinman symmetry
AU - Niccolò Sellati
AU - Jacopo Fiore
AU - Lara Benfatto
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/05
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2605.27127
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.27127
AB - The observation of anomalously large polarization rotations in pump-probe experiments with circularly polarized light has recently challenged the conventional understanding of the inverse Faraday effect. The striking magnitude of these responses implies the generation of effective magnetic fields orders of magnitude larger than theoretical expectations, raising fundamental questions about the nature of light-induced time-reversal symmetry breaking. In this work we demonstrate that a static polarization rotation can originate entirely from the antisymmetric component of the third-order optical susceptibility, without generating a macroscopic magnetization of the material. We show that this light-induced Faraday effect is inherently dynamical, emerging when Kleinman symmetry breaks down. Using a minimal sp tight-binding model on a square lattice, we demonstrate that the light-induced Faraday response can be sizable even far from dissipative resonances. While the effect emerges at a purely electronic level, we show that resonant coupling with phonons can significantly enhance the pump-probe response. Finally, we demonstrate that the light-induced Faraday contribution can strongly exceed the magneto-optical response mediated by the inverse Faraday effect in nonmagnetic materials.
ER -