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Peer-reviewedCC BYNature Physics

Optical control of electrons in a Floquet topological insulator

  • Daniel Lesko1,2
  • Tobias Weitz1
  • Simon Wittigschlager1
  • Weizhe Li1
  • Christian Heide3,1,4
  • Ofer Neufeld5,6
  • Peter Hommelhoff1,2
6 affiliations
  1. 1Department of Physics, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany
  2. 2Fakultät für Physik, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany
  3. 3CREOL, The College of Optics and Photonics, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL USA
  4. 4Department of Physics, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL USA
  5. 5Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, Hamburg, Germany
  6. 6Schulich Faculty of Chemistry, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
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Abstract

Light-dressed materials offer a route to generating electronic properties that differ from those of materials at equilibrium. The resulting band structures can host distinct quantum and topological phenomena. So far, optical control of charge within a light-dressed band structure has remained elusive. Here we demonstrate optical control of electrons in light-dressed graphene. By focusing circularly polarized femtosecond laser pulses at 1,550 nm on monolayer graphene, we generate a Floquet topological insulator. With a phase-locked second-harmonic field, we dynamically control electrons in this state, a technique we call harmonic Floquet spectroscopy. We observe photocurrent circular dichroism, an all-optical anomalous Hall effect and valley-polarized currents. The photocurrents show strong subcycle phase sensitivity, suggesting a route to ultrafast control in topological electronics, spectroscopy and attosecond physics in quantum materials.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{lesko2026optical,
  title = {{Optical control of electrons in a Floquet topological insulator}},
  author = {Daniel Lesko and Tobias Weitz and Simon Wittigschlager and Weizhe Li and Christian Heide and Ofer Neufeld and Peter Hommelhoff},
  journal = {Nature Physics},
  year = {2026},
  month = aug,
  doi = {10.1038/s41567-026-03429-7},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-026-03429-7},
  note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Optical control of electrons in a Floquet topological insulator
AU  - Daniel Lesko
AU  - Tobias Weitz
AU  - Simon Wittigschlager
AU  - Weizhe Li
AU  - Christian Heide
AU  - Ofer Neufeld
AU  - Peter Hommelhoff
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/08/31
JO  - Nature Physics
DO  - 10.1038/s41567-026-03429-7
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-026-03429-7
AB  - Light-dressed materials offer a route to generating electronic properties that differ from those of materials at equilibrium. The resulting band structures can host distinct quantum and topological phenomena. So far, optical control of charge within a light-dressed band structure has remained elusive. Here we demonstrate optical control of electrons in light-dressed graphene. By focusing circularly polarized femtosecond laser pulses at 1,550 nm on monolayer graphene, we generate a Floquet topological insulator. With a phase-locked second-harmonic field, we dynamically control electrons in this state, a technique we call harmonic Floquet spectroscopy. We observe photocurrent circular dichroism, an all-optical anomalous Hall effect and valley-polarized currents. The photocurrents show strong subcycle phase sensitivity, suggesting a route to ultrafast control in topological electronics, spectroscopy and attosecond physics in quantum materials.
SN  - 1745-2473
SN  - 1745-2481
ER  -