Photoinduced Transition between Conventional and Topological Insulators in Two-Dimensional Electronic Systems
Photoinduced Transition between Conventional and Topological Insulators in Two-Dimensional Electronic Systems
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DOI：
10.1103/physrevlett.105.017401
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发表时间：
2010-06-28
影响因子：
8.6
通讯作者：
Tanaka, Akihiro
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Inoue, Jun-ichi;Tanaka, Akihiro
控制绝缘体的拓扑性质是在电子系统中实现新的电荷或自旋响应的主要问题，这些不变量以不变量编码，如陈数及其推广。为此，我们提出了一种简单的光学手段，它受制于圆偏振激光驱动场。以霍尔丹首先考虑的双带绝缘体为例，我们展示了当激光强度被绝热扫描时，电子系统如何通过与不同陈数有关的位相来调谐，即光诱导模拟量子霍尔平台跃迁。我们的发现的意义包括激光调谐传统绝缘体进入量子自旋霍尔系统的可能性。
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.