Optical imprinting of superlattices in two-dimensional materials

TL;DR

This paper introduces an optical method to create and tune superlattice structures in two-dimensional materials using circularly polarized laser fields, enabling control over electronic properties and topological phases.

Contribution

It presents a novel optical imprinting technique for reconfigurable superlattices in 2D materials, allowing dynamic tuning of band structures and topological features.

Findings

Optical superlattices can be synthesized with various symmetries and periodicities.

Tuning optical parameters affects band topology, bandwidths, and gaps.

The method enables exploration of topological transitions and flat band creation.

Abstract

We propose an optical method of shining circularly polarized and spatially periodic laser fields to imprint superlattice structures in two-dimensional electronic systems. By changing the configuration of the optical field, we synthesize various lattice structures with different spatial symmetry, periodicity, and strength. We find that the wide optical tunability allows one to tune different properties of the effective band structure, including Chern number, energy bandwidths, and band gaps. The in situ tunability of the superlattice gives rise to unique physics ranging from the topological transitions to the creation of the flat bands through the kagome superlattice, which can allow a realization of strongly correlated phenomena in Floquet systems. We consider the high-frequency regime where the electronic system can remain in the quasiequilibrium phase for an extended amount of time. The spatiotemporal reconfigurability of the present scheme opens up possibilities to control light-matter interaction to generate novel electronic states and optoelectronic devices.