Floquet–Bloch manipulation of the Dirac gap in a topological antiferromagnet

Bibliographic Details
Title: Floquet–Bloch manipulation of the Dirac gap in a topological antiferromagnet
Authors: Bielinski, Nina, Chari, Rajas, May-Mann, Julian, Kim, Soyeun, Zwettler, Jack, Deng, Yujun, Aishwarya, Anuva, Roychowdhury, Subhajit, Shekhar, Chandra, Hashimoto, Makoto, Lu, Donghui, Yan, Jiaqiang, Felser, Claudia, Madhavan, Vidya, Shen, Zhi-Xun, Hughes, Taylor L., Mahmood, Fahad
Source: Nature Physics; 20250101, Issue: Preprints p1-6, 6p
Abstract: Floquet–Bloch manipulation, achieved by driving a material periodically with a laser pulse, is a method that enables the engineering of electronic and magnetic phases in solids by effectively modifying the structure of their electronic bands. However, the application of Floquet–Bloch manipulation in topological magnetic systems, particularly those with inherent disorder, remains largely unexplored. Here we realize Floquet–Bloch manipulation of the Dirac surface-state mass of the topological antiferromagnet MnBi2Te4. Using time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we show that opposite helicities of mid-infrared circularly polarized light result in substantially different Dirac mass gaps in the antiferromagnetic phase, despite the equilibrium Dirac cone being massless. We explain our findings in terms of a Dirac fermion with a random mass. Our results underscore Floquet–Bloch manipulation as a powerful tool for controlling topology, even in the presence of disorder, and for uncovering properties of materials that may elude conventional probes.
Database: Supplemental Index
More Details
ISSN:17452473
17452481
DOI:10.1038/s41567-024-02769-6
Published in:Nature Physics
Language:English