Role of intra-band transitions in photo-carrier generation

Abstract: We theoretically investigate the role of intra-band transitions in laser-induced carrier-generation for different photon energy regimes: (i) strongly off-resonant, (ii) multi-photon resonant, and (iii) resonant conditions. Based on the analysis for the strongly off-resonant and multi-photon resonant cases, we find that intra-band transitions strongly enhance photo-carrier generation in both multi-photon absorption and tunneling excitation regimes, and thus, they are indispensable for describing the nonlinear photo-carrier generation processes. Furthermore, we find that intra-band transitions enhance photo-carrier generation even in the resonant condition, opening additional multi-photon excitation channels once the laser irradiation becomes sufficiently strong. The above findings suggest a potential for efficient control of photo-carrier generation via multi-color laser pulses through optimization of the contributions from intra-band transitions.