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Published August 1, 2017 | Published + Submitted
Journal Article Open

Disorder induced transitions in resonantly driven Floquet Topological Insulators

Abstract

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.

Additional Information

© 2017 American Physical Society. Received 21 March 2017; published 16 August 2017. P.T., N.H.L., and G.R. acknowledge support from the U.S.-Israel Bi-National Science Foundation (BSF). G.R. and P.T. are grateful for support from NSF through DMR-1410435. G.R. would like to acknowledge Aspen Center for Physics for hospitality under NSF grant 1066293. N.H.L. acknowledges support from I-Core, the Israeli excellence center Circle of Light, from the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under REA Grant Agreement No. 631696, and from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, under Grant Agreement No. 639172. P.T. was also was supported by the AFOSR, ARO MURI, ARL CDQI, NSF QIS, ARO, and NSF PFC at JQI.

Attached Files

Published - PhysRevB.96.054207.pdf

Submitted - 1702.02956.pdf

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Created:
August 19, 2023
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October 26, 2023