Year: 2016
Type: article
Abstract: Valley degrees of freedom offer a potential resource for quantum information processing if they can be effectively controlled. We discuss an optical approach to this problem in which intense light breaks electronic symmetries of a two-dimensional Dirac material. The resulting quasienergy structures may then differ for different valleys, so that the Floquet physics of the system can be exploited to produce highly polarized valley currents. This physics can be utilized to realize a valley valve whose behavior is determined optically. We propose a concrete way to achieve such valleytronics in graphene as well as in a simple model of an inversion-symmetry broken Dirac material. We study the effect numerically and demonstrate its robustness against moderate disorder and small deviations in optical parameters.
Source: Physical Review Letters
Authors: Arijit Kundu, H. A. Fertig, Babak Seradjeh
Institutions: Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana University
Language: English
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2253021233