Structured Light-Matter Interaction: Twisted Photons in Graphene

Abstract: In this work we present a numerical framework for studying the interaction of structured electromagnetic fields, i.e., light pulses carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM), interacting with a single layer of graphene. Our approach is based on a two-step process, where first the interaction of structured light with matter, modelled by a suitable Dirac equation is solved and then coupled with Maxwell's equations, for studying the properties in both space and frequency domain of the generated nonlinear electromagnetic field. As an example of application of our method we investigate third harmonic generation by an OAM pulse. We check that OAM conservation through harmonic generation is conserved, and we report on both the spatial and frequency features of the third harmonic signal, comparing it with the traditional frequency response for spatially uniform field.