Optical bistability of graphene in the terahertz range

We use an exact solution of the relaxation-time Boltzmann equation in a uniform ac electric field to describe the nonlinear optical response of graphene in the terahertz (THz) range. The cases of monolayer, bilayer, and ABA-stacked trilayer graphene are considered, and the monolayer species is shown to be the most appropriate one to exploit the nonlinear free electron response.

We find that a single layer of graphene shows optical bistability in the THz range, within the electromagnetic power range attainable in practice. The current associated with the third harmonic generation is also computed.