Floquet-engineered light-cone spreading of correlations in a driven quantum chain

Mona H. Kalthoff, Dante M. Kennes, and Michael A. Sentef
Phys. Rev. B 100, 165125 – Published 16 October 2019

Abstract

We investigate the light-cone-like spread of electronic correlations in a laser-driven quantum chain. Using the time-dependent density matrix renormalization group, we show that high-frequency driving leads to a Floquet-engineered spread velocity that determines the enhancement of density-density correlations when the ratio of potential and kinetic energies is effectively increased both by either a continuous or a pulsed drive. For large times we numerically show the existence of a Floquet steady state at not too long distances on the lattice with minimal heating. Intriguingly, we find a discontinuity of dynamically scaled correlations at the edge of the light cone, akin to the discontinuity known to exist for quantum quenches in Luttinger liquids. Our work demonstrates the potential of pump-probe experiments for investigating light-induced correlations in low-dimensional materials and puts quantitative speed limits on the manipulation of long-ranged correlations through Floquet engineering.

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  • Received 30 July 2019
  • Revised 4 October 2019

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.100.165125

©2019 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied PhysicsAtomic, Molecular & Optical

Authors & Affiliations

Mona H. Kalthoff1,*, Dante M. Kennes2, and Michael A. Sentef1,†

  • 1Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761 Hamburg, Germany
  • 2Institut für Theorie der Statistischen Physik, RWTH Aachen University, 52056 Aachen, Germany

  • *mona.kalthoff@mpsd.mpg.de
  • michael.sentef@mpsd.mpg.de

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Issue

Vol. 100, Iss. 16 — 15 October 2019

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