Irradiated three-dimensional Luttinger semimetal: A factory for engineering Weyl semimetals

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how elliptically polarized light can be used to induce and control various Weyl semimetal phases in three-dimensional Luttinger semimetals, enabling dynamic tuning of topological properties.

Contribution

It introduces a method to generate and manipulate Weyl semimetals in Luttinger materials using Floquet theory and light tuning, revealing new phases and transitions.

Findings

Multiple Weyl phases can be created by tuning light parameters.

Coexistence of double and single Weyl points at different energies.

Discovery of an unusual phase transition involving Weyl nodes.

Abstract

We study the interaction between elliptically polarized light and a three-dimensional Luttinger semimetal with quadratic band touching using Floquet theory. In the absence of light, the touching bands can have the same or the opposite signs of the curvature; in each case, we show that simply tuning the light parameters allows us to create a zoo of Weyl semimetallic phases. In particular, we find that double and single Weyl points can coexist at different energies, and they can be tuned to be type I or type II. We also find an unusual phase transition, in which a pair of Weyl nodes form at finite momentum and disappear off to infinity. Considering the broad tunability of light and abundance of materials described by the Luttinger Hamiltonian, such as certain pyrochlore iridates, half-Heuslers and zinc-blende semiconductors, we believe this work can lay the foundation for creating Weyl semimetals in the lab and dynamically tuning between them.