Twisted Schwinger Effect: Pair Creation in Rotating Fields

We study the nonperturbative pair production of particles induced by strong rotating electric fields. The excitations by tunneling become strongly chirality dependent due to nonadiabatic geometric effects. The threshold, i.e., Schwinger limit, even vanishes for particles with an optically allowed chirality. We explain these phenomena through the twisted Landau-Zener model proposed by M. V. Berry, and provide a quantitative understanding in terms of the geometric amplitude factor. As a condensed matter application, we make a nonperturbative analysis on the optically induced valley polarization in 2D Dirac materials. Furthermore, in 3D Dirac and Weyl materials with spin-orbit coupling, we predict the generation of a nonlinear spin or charge current in the direction of the laser propagation.