Disorder-induced transitions in resonantly driven Floquet topological insulators

作者:Titum Paraj*; Lindner Netanel H; Refael Gil
来源:Physical Review B, 2017, 96(5): 054207.
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevB.96.054207

摘要

We investigate the effects of disorder in Floquet topological insulators (FTIs) occurring in semiconductor quantum wells. Such FTIs are induced by resonantly driving a transition between the valence and conduction bands. We show that when disorder is added, the topological nature of such FTIs persists as long as there is a mobility gap at the resonant quasienergy. For strong enough disorder, this gap closes and all the states become localized as the system undergoes a transition to a trivial insulator. Interestingly, the effects of disorder are not necessarily adverse: we show that in the same quantum well, disorder can also induce a transition from a trivial to a topological system, thereby establishing a Floquet topological Anderson insulator (FTAI). We identify the conditions on the driving field necessary for observing such a transition.

  • 出版日期2017-8-16