Photoinduced Transition between Conventional and Topological Insulators in Two-Dimensional Electronic Systems
Year: 2010
Type: article
Abstract: Manipulating the topological properties of insulators, encoded in invariants such as the Chern number and its generalizations, is now a major issue for realizing novel charge or spin responses in electron systems. We propose that a simple optical means, subjecting to a driving laser field with circular polarization, can be fruitfully incorporated to this end. Taking as a prototypical example the two-band insulator first considered by Haldane, we show how the electron system can be tuned through phases associated with different Chern numbers as the laser intensity is adiabatically swept, i.e., a photoinduced analog of the quantum Hall plateau transition. The implications of our findings include the possibility of laser tuning a conventional insulator into a quantum spin Hall system.
Source: Physical Review Letters
Authors: Jun-ichi Inoue, Akihiro Tanaka
Institution: National Institute for Materials Science
Language: English
Subfield: Condensed Matter Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1983258429