Photovoltaic effect in semiconductors stimulated by an additional electromagnetic wave

A new mechanism of the interband photovoltaic effect in semiconductors is considered when the direct current in a sample is excited by the simultaneous action of two linearly polarized electromagnetic waves. By solving the kinetic equation in relaxation time approximation for the photo‐electrons and using perturbation technique for calculating the transition probabilities the formula for the photostimulated current is obtained that shows an explicit dependence on the polarization direction, mutual orientation, and intensity of the two driving fields. In the resonant condition concerning the external field frequencies, r Ω 1 = s Ω 2 ( r , s are odd integers) there appears a jump in the current value due to the optical rectification effect. Numerical estimations are given which show that the effect is strong enough to be measurable in available experiments.