Highly efficient high-order harmonic generation by metallic carbon nanotubes

Abstract

High-order harmonic generation by metallic carbon nanotubes exposed to an intense ultrashort pulse has been theoretically investigated in the semiclassical approximation. The mechanism of nonlinearity provided by the motion of conduction electrons below the band of optical resonances has been considered. It has been shown that the high density of states of conduction electrons in metallic carbon nanotubes and the specific dispersion law inherent in hexagonal crystalline structure as well as the transverse quantization of the electron momentum result in a uniquely high efficiency of the current conversion to high-order harmonics.