Twisted-light-induced optical transitions in semiconductors: Free-carrier quantum kinetics

Abstract

We theoretically investigate the interband transitions and quantum kinetics induced by light carrying orbital angular momentum, or twisted light, in bulk semiconductors. We pose the problem in terms of the Heisenberg equations of motion of the electron populations, and interband and intraband coherences. Our theory extends the free-carrier semiconductor Bloch equations to the case of photoexcitation by twisted light. The theory is formulated using cylindrical coordinates, which are better suited to describe the interaction with twisted light than the usual Cartesian coordinates used to study regular optical excitation. We solve the equations of motion in the low excitation regime, and obtain analytical expressions for the coherences and populations; with these, we calculate the orbital angular momentum transferred from the light to the electrons and the paramagnetic and diamagnetic electric current densities. © 2010 The American Physical Society.