Dynamical manipulation of Dirac points in the Kitaev honeycomb model

TL;DR

This paper investigates how applying a half wave rectified sinusoidal electromagnetic wave can manipulate Dirac points in the Kitaev honeycomb model, revealing the possibility of merging Dirac points into a semi-Dirac spectrum through Floquet analysis.

Contribution

It demonstrates that external electromagnetic fields can dynamically control Dirac points in the Kitaev model, introducing a method to induce semi-Dirac spectra via Floquet engineering.

Findings

Dirac points can be merged into a semi-Dirac spectrum.

External EM fields enable dynamic control of topological features.

Floquet analysis reveals conditions for Dirac point merging.

Abstract

We study the effect of a half wave rectified sinusoidal electromagnetic (EM) wave on the Kitaev honeycomb model with an additional magneto-electric coupling term {arising due to induced polarization of the bonds. Within the framework of Floquet analysis, we show that merging of a pair of Dirac points in the gapless region of the Kitaev model leading to a semi-Dirac spectrum is indeed possible} by externally varying the amplitude and the phase of the EM field.