Dynamics of tunneling into nonequilibrium edge states

Benjamin M. Fregoso, Jan P. Dahlhaus, and Joel E. Moore
Phys. Rev. B 90, 155127 – Published 22 October 2014

Abstract

Time-dependent perturbations can drive a trivial two-dimensional band insulator into a quantum-Hall-like phase, with protected nonequilibrium states bound to its edges. We propose an experiment to probe the existence of these topological edge states that consists of passing a tunneling current through a small two-dimensional sample out of equilibrium. The signature is a nonquantized metallic conductance near the edges of the sample and, in contrast, an excitation gap in the bulk. This proposal is demonstrated for the case of a two-dimensional lattice model of Dirac electrons with tunable mass in a strong electromagnetic field. In addition, we also study the tunneling conductance of the driven resonant level model and find a phenomenon similar to dynamic localization in which certain transport channels are suppressed.

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  • Received 1 June 2014
  • Revised 26 August 2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.90.155127

©2014 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Benjamin M. Fregoso, Jan P. Dahlhaus, and Joel E. Moore

  • Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA

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Issue

Vol. 90, Iss. 15 — 15 October 2014

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