Subcycle videography of Landau-Zener-Majorana transitions in graphene
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Updated: Oct 30, 2026

Advanced Experimental Methods for Low-temperature Magnetotransport Measurement of Novel Materials
Published on: January 21, 2016
V Eggers1, G Inzani1, M Meierhofer1
1Department of Physics, Regensburg Center for Ultrafast Nanoscopy (RUN) and Halle-Berlin-Regensburg Cluster of Excellence CCE, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany.
Abstract:
Strong light fields have unlocked entirely new possibilities to tailor coherent electron trajectories, engineer band structures and shape emergent phases of matter all-optically1-9. Unravelling the underlying quantum mechanisms requires a visualization of the lightwave-driven electron motion10,11 directly in the band structure. Although photoelectron momentum microscopy has imaged photoexcited electrons averaged over many cycles of light12-19, subcycle band-structure videography has been limited to small electron momenta8,20. Yet, lightwave-driven elementary processes in quantum materials often occur throughout momentum space. Here we introduce attosecond-precision, subcycle band-structure videography covering the entire first Brillouin zone and visualize one of the most fundamental but elusive strong-field processes: non-adiabatic Landau-Zener-Majorana tunnelling. The interplay of strong-field-driven acceleration within the Dirac-like band structure of graphene and periodic Landau-Zener-Majorana interband tunnelling manifests in a coherent subcycle displacement and distortion of the carrier distribution at the Brillouin zone edge. The extremely non-thermal electron distributions also allow us to disentangle competing scattering processes and assess their impact on coherent electronic control. Our panoramic view of field-driven electron motion enables a new quality of microscopic understanding of strong-field control of quantum materials.
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