Optically induced topological states on the surface of mercury telluride

Abstract

We developed the theory which describes the Floquet engineering of surface electronic modes in bulk mercury telluride (HgTe) by a circularly polarized electromagnetic field. The analysis shows that the field results in the appearance of the surface states which arise from the mixing of conduction and valence bands of HgTe. Their branches lie near the center of the Brillouin zone and have the Dirac dispersion characteristic for topological states. Besides them, the irradiation induces the gap between the conduction and valence bands of HgTe. Thus, the irradiation can turn mercury telluride into a topological insulator from a gapless semiconductor. It is demonstrated that the optically induced states differ substantially from the nontopological surface states existing in HgTe without irradiation. The structure of the found states is studied both analytically and numerically in the broad range of their parameters.