Analytic and geometric properties of photoinduced effects in noncentrosymmetric crystals: photovoltaic current and optical rectification

Abstract

An original dispersion relation between the stationary coherent nonlinear optical responses by current and polarisation is obtained. The dispersion relation provides a new complimentary tool that can be employed to study light-induced charge transport models and facilitate experimental data analysis. It is shown that the origin of the coherent current and the dc-polarisation induced in a noncentrosymmetric crystal under illumination is related to the theory of the Berry phase and can be represented in terms of the renormalised geometric potentials. This renormalisation originates from the extra phase difference acquired by a carrier in the light field on the quantum transition between the electronic bands. The gauge invariance of the corresponding expressions for the current and the polarisation is demonstrated.