Optically engineering the topological properties of a spin Hall insulator

Details Optically engineering the topological properties of a spin Hall insulator Optically engineering the topological properties of a spin Hall insulator

2011-05-30

arxiv.org/abs/1105.5963v2

Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 056602 (2012)

Physics

Condensed Matter

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics

5+4=9 pages, 3+6=9 figures, the effect of vector potential is analyzed

Scientific paper

10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.056602

Time-periodic perturbations can be used to engineer topological properties of matter by altering the Floquet band structure. This is demonstrated for a spin Hall insulator in the presence of monochromatic circularly polarized light. The inherent spin structure of the edge state is influenced by the Zeeman coupling and not by the orbital effect. The photocurrent (and the magnetization along the edge) develops a finite, helicity dependent expectation value and turns from dissipationless to dissipative with increasing radiation frequency, signalling a change in the topological properties. The connection with Thouless' charge pumping and non-equilibrium Zitterbewegung is discussed, together with possible experiments.

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