Unconventional quantum Hall effect in Floquet topological insulators

M. Tahir, P. Vasilopoulos, Udo Schwingenschlögl

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

We study an unconventional quantum Hall effect for the surface states of ultrathin Floquet topological insulators in a perpendicular magnetic field. The resulting band structure is modified by photon dressing and the topological property is governed by the low-energy dynamics of a single surface. An exchange of symmetric and antisymmetric surface states occurs by reversing the lights polarization. We find a novel quantum Hall state in which the zeroth Landau level undergoes a phase transition from a trivial insulator state, with Hall conductivity αyx = 0 at zero Fermi energy, to a Hall insulator state with αyx = e2/2h. These findings open new possibilities for experimentally realizing nontrivial quantum states and unusual quantum Hall plateaus at (±1/2,±3/2,±5/2, ...)e2/h. © 2016 IOP Publishing Ltd Printed in the UK.
Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)385302
JournalJournal of Physics: Condensed Matter
Volume28
Issue number38
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 27 2016

Bibliographical note

KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01
Acknowledgements: This work was supported by the Canadian NSERC Grant No. OGP0121756 (MT, PV). The research reported in this publication was supported by funding from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) (US).

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