Tuning the spin of Dirac fermions on the surface of topological insulators in proximity to a helical spin density wave.

We investigate the spin tunability of Dirac fermions on the surface of a 3D topological insulator in proximity to a helical spin density wave, acting as an applied one-dimensional periodic potential for spins produced by spiral multiferroic oxide. It is observed that the spin mean values of Dirac fermion undergo oscillations under the influence of such a periodic potential created by the exchange field of magnetization. The tunability of spin is strongly affected by the strength, orientation and period of the exchange field. In particular, the mean values of spin are anisotropic around the Dirac point, depending strongly on the amplitude and spatial period of the periodic potential. We also find that the spin expectation values change significantly by changing the plane of magnetization. Interestingly, the in-plane components of spin mean values perform pronounced oscillations, whereas the out of plane component does not oscillate at all. The oscillations of planar components of spin are originated from the spin-momentum locking on the surface of topological insulator.

Quantum quench of photoinduced semi-Dirac materials: Hall response.

In this work, far from equilibrium Hall response of semi-Dirac materials is studied. This required preparing the system in non-equilibrium states through a quantum quench protocol. We show that in the non-equilibrium setting, there is non-zero Hall response even when instantaneous time reversal symmetry (TRS) is present and the Hall current persists for long times. This is in contrast to the equilibrium case where the system is required to break TRS for a Hall response. This highlights unique features of far from equilibrium response in semi-Dirac materials that are not present in the corresponding equilibrium state.

Magneto-optical properties in thin film topological insulators with quadratic momentum term.

In this work we investigate the influence of quadratic in momentum term (Schrodinger term) on magneto-transport properties of thin film topological insulators. The Schrodinger term modifies the Dirac cones into an hourglass shape which results in inter and intraband Landau levels crossings. Breaking of the particle-hole symmetry in Landau level spectrum in the presence ofk2term leads to asymmetrical density of states profile. We calculate collisional and Hall conductivity for mixed Dirac-Schrodinger system in linear response regime and show oscillatory behavior in collisional conductivity, while Zeeman and hybridization terms provide a doubly split peak structure in collisional conductivity for the casem/me→ ∞. We calculate Hall conductivity analytically and show that for mixed system filling factor is not symmetric about Fermi energy unlike symmetric plateaus for pure Dirac case.

Optical radiation induced chaotic dynamics of electrons in a uniform magnetic field.

We investigate the effects of linearly polarized optical radiation on the cyclotron motion of an electron wave packet, considering the full quantum dynamics of the system. Analysis of the Landau-level (LL) spectrum reveals that only intra band cyclotron oscillation frequencies contribute to the effective oscillation frequency of the motion, whereas scattering between electron and hole Landau levels are forbidden. We find that the wave packet dynamics is significantly affected by varying the polarization direction of the electromagnetic radiation. The optical radiation is also affected by its interaction with electrons. Interestingly, we find that chaotic effects are induced by radiation in the dynamics of electron wave packet in an applied uniform magnetic field. Chaotic signatures in the dynamics are diagnosed by computing the relevant out-of-time-order correlation function and analyzed by using Poincaré maps. We attribute the appearance of such chaotic transport of electron wave packet to the nonlinear interaction between the optical radiation and internal cooperative oscillating mode produced by the interplay of relativistic (zitterbewegung) and cyclotron oscillations.

Magneto-optical properties of topological insulator thin films with broken inversion symmetry.

We determine the optical response of ultrathin film topological insulators in the presence of a quantizing external magnetic field taking into account both hybridization between surface states, broken inversion symmetry and explicit time reversal symmetry breaking by the magnetic field. We find that breaking of inversion symmetry in the system, which can be due to interaction with a substrate or electrical gating, results in Landau level crossings and opening of additional optical transition channels that were previously forbidden. We show that by tuning the hybridization and symmetry breaking parameters, a transition from the normal to a topological insulator phase occurs with measureable signatures in both static (dc) and dynamic (optical) conductivity. Moreover, we find that these signatures in the optical Hall conductivity remain robust against a significant range of disorder strength.

Hybridization effects on wave packet dynamics in topological insulator thin films.

Theoretical study of electron wave packet dynamics in topological insulator (TI) thin films is presented. We have investigated real space trajectories and spin dynamics of electron wave packets in TI thin films. Our focus is on the role of hybridization between the electronic states of the two surfaces. This allows us to access the crossover regime of a thick film with no hybridization to a thin film with finite hybridization. We show that the electron wave packet undergoes side-jump motion in addition to zitterbewegung. The oscillation frequency of zitterbewegung can be tuned by the strength of hybridization, which in turn can be tuned by the thickness of the film. We find that the spin expectations also exhibit zitterbewegung tunable by hybridization. We also show that it is possible to obtain persistent zitterbewegung, oscillations which do not decay, in both the real space trajectories as well as spin dynamics. The zitterbewegung oscillation frequency in TI thin films falls in a parameter regime where it might be possible to observe these effects using present day experimental techniques.

Radiation-assisted magnetotransport in two-dimensional electron gas systems: appearance of zero resistance states.

Zero-resistance states (ZRS) are normally associated with superconducting and quantum Hall phases. Experimental detection of ZRS in two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) systems irridiated by microwave(MW) radiation in a magnetic field has been quite a surprise. We develop a semiclassical transport formalism to explain the phenomena. We find a sequence of Zero-Resistance States (ZRS) inherited from the suppression of Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) oscillations under the influence of high-frequency and large amplitude microwave radiation. Furthermore, the ZRS are well pronounced and persist up to broad intervals of magnetic field as observed in experiments on microwave illuminated 2DEG systems.