Light Induced Orbital Magnetism in Metals via Inverse Faraday Effect

Abstract

We present a microscopic calculation of the inverse Faraday effect in metals. We derive a static local magnetic moment induced on the application of high-frequency light, using the Eilenberger formulation of quasiclassical theory. We include the effect of disorder and formulate a theory applicable across the entire temperature range, in the absence of external applied fields. For light-induced electric fields of amplitude $\sim 100 kV/cm$, the induced fields are large, $\sim 0.1 T$ for metallic Nb! The predictions of our theory agree with recent experimental and theoretical results [1]. An extension of this approach to superconductors would open a new route of inducing orbital magnetic field and potentially vortices in superconductors.