Inverse Faraday effect and Stokes drift in plasma

Abstract

Recent theory of the light-induced medium magnetization (inverse Faraday effect, IFE) performed by a transversely-limited circularly-polarized light beam [Phys. Rev. B 91, 020411 (2015)] predicts the existence of a "demagnetization current" (DC) at the beam periphery which, apparently, acts oppositely to the light-induced rotational motion of the charge carriers inside the beam and thus reduces the IFE by the factor of 2. In this note, taking the longitudinal component of the beam into account, we show that the peripheral DC is two times higher than was calculated before. Nevertheless, this circumstance does not cancel the IFE because the DC, as a sort of Stokes-drift current in plasma [Phys. Rev. E 105, 065208 (2022)], is accompanied by the additional "magnetization current" of the opposite direction.