Anyonic Chern insulator in graphene induced by surface electromagnon vacuum fluctuations

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel cavity system using magneto-electric materials to induce an anyonic Chern insulator in graphene via surface electromagnon vacuum fluctuations, breaking time-reversal symmetry.

Contribution

It introduces a new cavity design that leverages surface electromagnons to generate topological quantum states in graphene, expanding the possibilities for quantum material engineering.

Findings

Graphene can be driven into an anyonic Chern insulator state.

The topological gap decays polynomially with distance.

Surface electromagnons enable breaking time-reversal symmetry in cavities.

Abstract

Sub-wavelength cavities have emerged as a promising platform to realize strong light-matter coupling in condensed matter systems. Previous studies are limited to dielectric sub-wavelength cavities, which preserve time-reversal symmetry. Here, we lift this constraint by proposing a cavity system based on magneto-electric materials, which host surface electromagnons with non-orthogonal electric field and magnetic field components. The quantum fluctuations of the surface electromagnons drive a nearby graphene monolayer into an anyonic Chern insulator, characterized by anyonic quasi-particles and a topological gap that decays polynomially with the graphene-substrate distance. Our work opens a path to controllably break time-reversal symmetry and induce exotic quantum states through cavity vacuum fluctuations.