Interplay between spin-orbit interactions and a time-dependent electromagnetic field in monolayer graphene

Abstract

We apply a circularly and linearly polarized terahertz field on a monolayer of graphene taking into account spin-orbit interactions of the intrinsic and Rashba type. It turns out that the field can not only be used to induce a gap in the energy spectrum, but also to close an existing gap due to the different reaction of the spin components on circularly polarized light. Signatures of spin-orbit coupling on the density of states of the driven system can be observed even for energies where the static density of states is independent of spin-orbit interactions. Furthermore it is shown that the time evolution of the spin polarization and the orbital dynamics of an initial wave packet can be modulated by varying the ratio of the spin-orbit coupling parameters. Assuming that the system acquires a quasi stationary state, the optical conductivity of the irradiated sample is calculated. Our results confirm the multi step nature of the conductivity obtained recently, where the number of intermediate steps can be changed by adjusting the spin-orbit coupling parameters and the orientation of the field.

10 pages, 11 figures; typos corrected, references added

References in corpus (18)

• Electric Field Effect in Atomically Thin Carbon Films
• The electronic properties of graphene
• Valley polarization in MoS2 monolayers by optical pumping
• Photovoltaic Hall effect in graphene
• The optical conductivity of graphene in the visible region of the spectrum
• Driven quantum transport on the nanoscale
• Tuning laser-induced bandgaps in graphene
• Zitterbewegung of electronic wave packets in semiconductor nanostructures
• Unified description of the Zitterbewegung for spintronic, graphene and superconducting systems
• Optical response of graphene under intense terahertz fields
• Radiation effects on the electronic structure of bilayer graphene
• Photon-assisted electron transport in graphene
• Cyclotron motion in graphene
• Laser-induced effects on the electronic features of graphene nanoribbons
• Dynamical current-current susceptibility of gapped graphene
• Ballistic side jump motion of electrons and holes in semiconductor quantum wells
• Kinetics of spin coherence of electrons in $n$-type InAs quantum wells under intense terahertz laser fields
• Intense terahertz laser fields on a two-dimensional hole gas with Rashba spin-orbit coupling

Cited by in corpus (15)

• Graphene Spintronics
• Irradiated graphene as a tunable Floquet topological insulator
• A Chirality-Based Quantum Leap
• Plasmons and screening in a monolayer of MoS${}_2$
• Photoinduced valley and electron-hole symmetry breaking in $\alpha$-$T_3$ lattice: The role of a variable Berry phase
• Photoinduced pseudospin effects in silicene beyond the off resonant condition
• Pure spin current and perfect valley filter by designed separation of the chiral states in two-dimensional honeycomb lattices
• Electron transitions for Dirac Hamiltonians with flat-bands under electromagnetic radiation and its application to the $\alpha -{\mathcal{T}}_3$ graphene model
• Dirac quantum time mirror
• Floquet-Drude conductivity
• Driven Hofstadter Butterflies and Related Topological Invariants
• THz Photodetector using sideband-modulated transport through surface states of a 3D Topological Insulator
• Particle Transport in Graphene Nanoribbon Driven by Ultrashort Pulses
• Photoinduced electronic and spin properties of two-dimensional electron gases with Rashba spin-orbit coupling under perpendicular magnetic fields
• Modulating dichroism and optical conductivity in bilayer graphene under intense electromagnetic field irradiation