Light as a tool to manipulate 2D materials

BERDAKIN, MATÍAS

Cuernavaca

Congreso; Transport at the Nanoscale; 2023

In this talk, we are going to discuss how light, in the strong coupling regime, allows the manipulation of the optoelectronic properties of materials. As an example, using Floquet scattering theory combined with atomistic models we study the interplay among laser illumination, spin, and topology in a two-dimensional material with spin–orbit coupling. Starting from a topological phase, we show how laser illumination can selectively disrupt the topological edge states depending on their spin. This is manifested by the generation of pure spin photocurrents and spin-polarized charge photocurrents under linearly and circularly polarized laser illumination, respectively. Our results open a path for the generation and control of spin-polarized photocurrents.