Metallic Electro-optic Effect in Gapped Bilayer Graphene

Electro-optic (EO) modulation is a critical device action in photonics. Recently, the non-Drude dynamics induced by the Berry curvature dipole (BCD) in metals have attracted attention as a potential candidate for terahertz EO modulation. However, such BCD-induced EO effects can be challenging to realize, often requiring flat bands and complex materials such as a strained magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene on hexagonal boron nitride. Here, we argue that metallic EO can be achieved with a much simpler material, gapped bilayer graphene, with EO coefficients comparable to that in flat-band materials in the terahertz range. In particular, we find metallic EO can be realized without a Berry curvature dipole; we identify skew-scattering and a “snap” (third-order derivative of velocity) can readily produce pronounced Pockels and Kerr EO effects in clean metals. These yield nonreciprocal and field-activated birefringence and field-induced modulations to transmission and reflection, essential components for terahertz EO modulators.