Theory of inverse Faraday effect for non-magnetic materials

We have formulated the theory for the linear (absorptive) inverse Faraday effect in non-magnetic metals with bulk inversion symmetry. We point out the importance of using a degenerate time-dependent perturbation theory, as these metals have doubly degenerate band structure even when spin-orbit is present. The degeneracy in these non-magnetic metals is present due to their inversion symmetry in the bulk. We studied the inverse Faraday effect in Au, Pt, Ta, W, Cu, and Pd using first-principles electronic structure calculations. We use the Wannier interpolation scheme to speed up convergence with respect to the sampling of the electron band structure.