Floquet-Volkov spin polarization in spin-degenerate Antiferromagnets
Abstract
Periodic driving enables ultrafast control of electronic structures in solids through the formation of photon-dressed Floquet-Bloch states. However, the measured photoemission spectra are influenced not only by these states but also by their interference with Volkov-dressed outgoing photoelectrons. Here, we demonstrate that Floquet-Volkov interference can generate spin-polarized photoemission in a collinear antiferromagnetic Dirac model without spin-orbit coupling (SOC). An in-plane linearly polarized pump preserves 𝒫𝒯 symmetry, leaving the Floquet quasienergies spin degenerate. Under near-resonant driving, photon-dressed conduction and valence bands hybridize, producing spin-dependent relative phases that are converted into unequal spin-resolved photoemission intensities through interference between pathways reaching the same Volkov-dressed final state. We analytically identify this interference mechanism and verify it using nonequilibrium Green-function calculations under periodic driving and finite pump-probe pulses. We further demonstrate that rotating the probe polarization can suppress or reverse the spin polarization without modifying the Floquet bands. Our findings establish Floquet-Volkov interference as a route to spin-selective photoemission in driven antiferromagnets without Floquet spin splitting or SOC.
Related
- Floquet Spin-Antiferroelectricity in Collinear Antiferromagnets
- Phonon-Programmable Hidden Unconventional Magnetism in Two-Dimensional Spin-Degenerate Antiferromagnets
- Attosecond topological interference beyond Floquet-Volkov paths
- Magnon Polarization Textures and Transport in Antiferromagnets and Altermagnets
- State-Selective Floquet Memory in Degenerate Manifolds
BibTeX
@misc{fan2026floquetvolkov,
title = {{Floquet-Volkov spin polarization in spin-degenerate Antiferromagnets}},
author = {Jiyang Fan and Dinghui Wang and Tongshuai Zhu},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2611.05856},
eprint = {2611.05856},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.05856},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Floquet-Volkov spin polarization in spin-degenerate Antiferromagnets
AU - Jiyang Fan
AU - Dinghui Wang
AU - Tongshuai Zhu
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/04
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2611.05856
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.05856
AB - Periodic driving enables ultrafast control of electronic structures in solids through the formation of photon-dressed Floquet-Bloch states. However, the measured photoemission spectra are influenced not only by these states but also by their interference with Volkov-dressed outgoing photoelectrons. Here, we demonstrate that Floquet-Volkov interference can generate spin-polarized photoemission in a collinear antiferromagnetic Dirac model without spin-orbit coupling (SOC). An in-plane linearly polarized pump preserves 𝒫𝒯 symmetry, leaving the Floquet quasienergies spin degenerate. Under near-resonant driving, photon-dressed conduction and valence bands hybridize, producing spin-dependent relative phases that are converted into unequal spin-resolved photoemission intensities through interference between pathways reaching the same Volkov-dressed final state. We analytically identify this interference mechanism and verify it using nonequilibrium Green-function calculations under periodic driving and finite pump-probe pulses. We further demonstrate that rotating the probe polarization can suppress or reverse the spin polarization without modifying the Floquet bands. Our findings establish Floquet-Volkov interference as a route to spin-selective photoemission in driven antiferromagnets without Floquet spin splitting or SOC.
ER -