Controllable Floquet edge modes in a multi-frequency driving system

TL;DR

This paper explores how multi-frequency driving in quantum systems can be used to control and localize Floquet edge modes at specific frequencies, revealing new topological phenomena in driven systems.

Contribution

It introduces a minimal model demonstrating controllable Floquet edge modes in multi-frequency driven systems, highlighting their dependence on frequency ratios and potential for localization.

Findings

Edge modes localized at specific frequencies can be controlled via frequency ratios.

A minimal two-level system model illustrates the emergence of Floquet boundary states.

The Creutz ladder model demonstrates practical realization of controllable Floquet edge modes.

Abstract

A driven quantum system has been recently studied in the context of nonequilibrium phase transitions and their responses. In particular, for a periodically driven system, its dynamics are described in terms of the multi-dimensional Floquet lattice with a lattice size depending on number of driving frequencies and their rational or irrational ratio. So far, for a multi-frequency driving system, the energy pumping between the sources of frequencies has been widely discussed as a signature of topologically nontrivial Floquet bands. However, the unique edge modes emerging in the Floquet lattice has not been explored yet. Here, we discuss how the edge modes in the Floquet lattice are controlled and result in the localization at particular frequencies, when multiple frequencies are present and their magnitudes are commensurate values. First, we construct the minimal model to exemplify our argument, focusing on a two-level system with two driving frequencies. For strong frequency limit, one can describe the system as a quasi-one dimensional Floquet lattice where the effective hopping between the neighboring sites depends on the relative magnitudes of potential for two frequency modes. With multiple driving modes, there always exist the non-trivial Floquet lattice boundaries via controlling the frequencies and this gives rise to the states that are mostly localized at such Floquet lattice boundaries, i.e. particular frequencies. We suggest the time-dependent Creutz ladder model as a realization of our theoretical Hamiltonian and show the emergence of controllable Floquet edge modes.