Metal-insulator transition in graphene induced by circularly polarized photons

Abstract

Exact stationary solutions of the electron-photon Dirac equation are obtained to describe the strong interaction between massless Dirac fermions in graphene and circularly polarized photons. It follows from them that this interaction forms bound electron-photon states which should be considered as a kind of charged quasiparticles. The energy spectrum of the quasiparticles is of dielectric type and characterized by an energy gap between the valence and conductivity bands. Therefore the electron-photon interaction results in metalinsulator transition in graphene. The stationary energy gap, induced by photons, and concomitant effects can be observed for graphene exposed to a laser-generated circularly polarized electromagnetic wave.

Magneto-optical Franz-Keldysh effect in graphene

“…(14), expression (15) (15) is consistent with previous works 13 in graphene and, together with the result in Eq. (14), for both A(r) = 0 and A o = 0 limits, respectively, the validity of the formalism used in this paper is shown.…”

“…[8][9][10] In this connection, an energy gap can be observed around the Dirac points 11 and, likewise, a novel Hall effect occurring in the absence of magnetic fields is predicted in graphene monolayers under intense circularly polarized light. 12 Similarly, a metal-insulator transition in graphene as a result of an electron-photon interaction was recently proposed, 13 as well as dissipationless electron transport without Joule heating. 14 These particular optical and transport features in graphene offer a promising field of application in optoelectronic devices.…”

Beating oscillation and Fano resonance in the laser assisted electron transmission through graphene δ-function magnetic barriers

“…On the other hand, the latter can be achieved by the use of a periodic time dependent potential or by an electromagnetic radiation (particularly the laser). Most of the earlier time dependent problems in graphene dealt either with the application of electromagnetic radiation on graphene [30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37] or with the application of a sinusoidal (AC) voltage on the bulk graphene 38 and graphene based quantum well/barrier structures [39][40][41][42][43] . It was pointed out by Trauzettel et.…”

Exploring interacting Floquet states in black phosphorus: Anisotropy and bandgap laser tuning

“…Being completely isotropic, this type of field is known to induce the metal-insulatron transition in graphene, 42 resulting in the creation of a non-zero energy bandgap. If such a gap already exists, it could be increased or decreased depending on its initial value.…”

“…These electrons with substantially modified energy dispersions, referred to as "dressed states"', became a commonly used model in present-day lowdimensional physics. [36][37][38][39][40][41] One of the first significant achievements has been the demonstration of a metal-insulator transition in graphene 42 , which drastically affected the electron tunneling and the Klein paradox. 43,44 Important collective properties such as exchange and correlation energies are also affected by the presence of an energy gap, 45 and spin dynamics on the surface of a three-dimensional topological insulator 46 is also modified.…”