Effect of stacking configuration on high harmonic generation from bilayer hexagonal boron nitride

High harmonic generation from bilayer h-BN materials with different stacking configurations is theoretically investigated by solving the extended multiband semiconductor Bloch equations in strong laser fields. We find that the harmonic intensity of AA'-stacking bilayer h-BN is one order of magnitude higher than that of AA-stacking bilayer h-BN in high energy region. The theoretical analysis shows that with broken mirror symmetry in AA'-stacking, electrons have much more opportunities to transit between each layer. The enhancement in harmonic efficiency originates from additional transition channels of the carriers. Moreover, the harmonic emission can be dynamically manipulated by controlling the carrier envelope phase of the driving laser and the enhanced harmonics can be utilized to achieve single intense attosecond pulse. (c) 2023 Optica Publishing Group under the terms of the Optica Open Access Publishing Agreement