In this paper, we use Floquet theory to theoretically study the effect of monochromatic circularly and linearly polarized light on the Hofstadter butterfly in the square lattice, which is induced by uniform perpendicular magnetic field. In the absence of laser, the butterfly has a fractal, self-similar structure particle-hole symmetry and reflection symmetry about magnetic flux $ϕ= 1/2$. These symmetries are preserved by the sub-lattice and the time-reversal symmetry, respectively. As the system is exposed to circularly polarized light, the original Hofsatdter butterfly in equilibrium is deformed by breaking both the particle-hole symmetry and the mirror symmetry, while the inversion symmetry about energy $E=0$ and magnetic flux $ϕ=1/2$ is preserved. Our study show that, the circularly polarized light break both the sub-lattice symmetry and the time-reversal symmetry. The inversion symmetry is preserved because the Hamiltonian at magnetic flux $ϕ$ and $1-ϕ$ is connected through the sub-lattice transformation. Focusing on the small flux region, we study the Landau level and the influence of circularly polarized light on the Landau level. On the contrary, the linearly polarized light deforms the original Hofstadter butterfly by breaking the rotational symmetry while preserving sub-lattice and the time-reversal symmetry. Further, we study the influence of the periodic drive on the Chern number of the lowest band in middle Floquet copy within the off-resonance regime. We found strong circularly polarized light will change the Chern number. For linearly polarized light, the Chern number will not change and the values stay independent of laser polarization direction. Our work highlights the generic features expected for the periodically driven Hofstadter problem on square lattice and provide the strategy to engineering the Hofstadter butterfly with laser.
We investigate the electronic properties in the Bloch electron on a square lattice with vacancies in the uniform magnetic field. We show that a single vacancy site introduced to the system creates a defect energy level in every single innumerable fractal energy gap in the Hofstadter butterfly. The wavefunctions of different defect levels have all different localization lengths depending on their fractal generations, and they can be described by a single universal function after an appropriate fractal scaling. We also show that each defect state has its own characteristic orbital magnetic momen…
The $α$-$T_3$ model extrapolates between the pseudospin $S=1/2$ honeycomb lattice of graphene and the pseudospin $S=1$ dice lattice via parameter $α$. We present calculations of the magnetic properties of this hybrid pseudospin model, namely the absorptive magneto-optical conductivity and the Hofstadter butterfly spectra. In the magneto-optics curves, signatures of the hybrid system corollary a doublet structure present in the peaks, resulting from differing Landau level energies in the $K$ and $K^{\prime}$ valleys. In the Hofstadter spectra, we detail the evolution of the Hofstadter butterfly…
We study the relation between the global topology of the Hofstadter butterfly of a multiband insulator and the topological invariants of the underlying Hamiltonian. The global topology of the butterfly, i.e., the displacement of the energy gaps as the magnetic field is varied by one flux quantum, is determined by the spectral flow of energy eigenstates crossing gaps as the field is tuned. We find that for each gap this spectral flow is equal to the topological invariant of the gap, i.e., the net number of edge modes traversing the gap. For periodically driven systems, our results apply to the …
In this work we use Floquet theory to theoretically study the influence of monochromatic circularly and linearly polarized light on the Hofstadter butterfly---induced by a uniform perpendicular magnetic field--for both the kagome and triangular lattices. In the absence of the laser light, the butterfly has fractal structure with inversion symmetry about magnetic flux $ϕ=1/4$, and reflection symmetry about $ϕ=1/2$. As the system is exposed to an external laser, we find circularly polarized light deforms the butterfly by breaking the mirror symmetry at flux $ϕ=1/2$. By contrast, linearly polariz…
Integer quantum Hall effect and Hofstadter's butterfly spectra in three-dimensional metals in external periodic modulations
我们认为Hofstadter蝴蝶效应伴随着量子霍尔效应，这与Koshino {\it et al.} [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 86}，1062（2001）]可以在完全不同的系统中实现--施加有弱外部周期性调制的3D金属（例如，声波）。也就是说，由于施加的磁场$\Vec{B}$，两个周期性势的影响干扰朗道量子化，通常导致分形能隙作为$\Vec{B}$的倾斜角的函数，计算伴随的量子化霍尔张量。这一现象源于这样一个事实，即虽然本系统与3D紧束缚系统具有不同的蝴蝶物理起源，但数学形式是非常等效的。
The energy spectrum of massless Dirac fermions in graphene under two dimensional periodic magnetic modulation having square lattice symmetry is calculated. We show that the translation symmetry of the problem is similar to that of the Hofstadter or TKNN problem and in the weak field limit the tight binding energy eigenvalue equation is indeed given by Harper Hofstadter hamiltonian. We show that due to its magnetic translational symmetry the Hall conductivity can be identified as a topological invariant and hence quantized. We thus extend the idea of Quantum Hall Effect to magnetically modulate…
We study the magnetic field induced Hofstadter butterfly in twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) in various kinds of situations. First, we study the equilibrium case and identify the interlayer hopping processes that are most crucial for the appearance of a Hofstadter butterfly. Surprisingly, the hopping processes that are important for the appearance of the Hofstadter butterfly can be categorized as AA stacking type - that is interlayer hoppings between equivalent sublattices. This is in contrast to AB/BA-type hoppings that are important for the appearance of flat bands in magic angle TBG and were …
We present theoretical calculations for the cyclotron resonance and various magnetoplasmon modes of a Coulomb interacting two-dimensional GaAs electron gas (2DEG) modulated as a lateral superlattice of quantum dots subjected to an external perpendicular constant magnetic field. We use a real-time excitation approach based on the Liouville-von Neumann equation for the density operator, that can go beyond linear response delivering information of all longitudinal and transverse collective modes of interest to the same order. We perform an extensive analysis of the coexisting collective modes due…
We study the energy spectrum and quantum Hall effects of the twisted double bilayer graphene in uniform magnetic field. We investigate two different arrangements, AB-AB and AB-BA, which differ in the relative orientation but have very similar band structures in the absence of a magnetic field. For each system, we calculate the energy spectrum and quantized Hall conductivities at each spectral gap by using a continuum Hamiltonian that satisfies the magneto-translation condition. We show that the Hofstadter butterfly spectra of AB-AB and AB-BA stackings differ significantly, even though their ze…
We investigate theoretically the spectrum of a graphene-like sample (honeycomb lattice) subjected to a perpendicular magnetic field and irradiated by circularly polarized light. This system is studied using the Floquet formalism, and the resulting Hofstadter spectrum is analyzed for different regimes of the driving frequency. For lower frequencies, resonances of various copies of the spectrum lead to intricate formations of topological gaps. In the Landau-level regime, new wing-like gaps emerge upon reducing the driving frequency, thus revealing the possibility of dynamically tuning the format…
The magnetic field generated Hofstadter butterfly in single-twist trilayer graphene (TLG) is investigated using circularly polarized light (CPL) and longitudinal light emanating from a waveguide. We show that single-twist TLG has two distinct chiral limits in the equilibrium state, and the central branch of the butterfly splits into two precisely degenerate components. The Hofstadter butterfly appears to be more discernible. We also discovered that CPL causes a large gap opening at the central branch of the Hofstadter butterfly energy spectrum and between the Landau levels, with a clear asymme…
The energy spectrum of a tight-binding Hamiltonian is studied for the two-dimensional quasiperiodic Rauzy tiling in a perpendicular magnetic field. This spectrum known as a Hofstadter butterfly displays a very rich pattern of bulk gaps that are labeled by four integers, instead of two for periodic systems. The role of phason-flip disorder is also investigated in order to extract genuinely quasiperiodic properties. This geometric disorder is found to only preserve main quantum Hall gaps.
We present a scheme to generate an artificial gauge field for the system of neutral bosons, represented by polaritons in micropillars arranged into a square lattice. The splitting between the two polarizations of the micropillars breaks the time-reversal symmetry (TRS) and results in the effective phase-dependent hopping between cavities. This can allow for engineering a nonzero flux on the plaquette, corresponding to an artificial magnetic field. Changing the phase, we observe a characteristic Hofstadter's butterfly pattern and the appearance of chiral edge states for a finite-size structure.…
In this work, we study the topological phases of the dimerized square lattice in the presence of an external magnetic field. The dimerization pattern in the lattice's hopping amplitudes can induce a series of bulk energy gap openings in the Hofstadter spectrum at certain fractional fillings, giving rise to various topological phases. In particular, we show that at $\frac{1}{2}$-filling the topological quadrupole insulator phase with a quadrupole moment quantized to $\frac{e}{2}$ and associated corner-localized mid-gap states exists in certain parameter regime for all magnetic fluxes. At $\frac…
Electronic bands in a square lattice when subjected to a perpendicular magnetic field form the Hofstadter butterfly pattern. We study the evolution of this pattern as a function of bond percolation disorder (removal or dilution of lattice bonds). With increasing concentration of the bonds removed, the butterfly pattern gets smoothly decimated. However, in this process of decimation, bands develop interesting characteristics and features. For example, in the high disorder limit, some butterfly-like pattern still persists even as most of the states are localized. We also analyze, in the low diso…
Motivated by recent experimental realizations of topological edge states in Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) chains, we theoretically study a ladder system whose legs are comprised of two such chains. We show that the ladder hosts a rich phase diagram and related edge mode structure dictated by choice of inter-chain and intra-chain couplings. Namely, we exhibit three distinct physical regimes: a topological hosting localized zero energy edge modes, a topologically trivial phase having no edge mode structure, and a regime reminiscent of a weak topological insulator having unprotected edge modes resem…
Hofstadter butterflies of carbon nanotubes: Pseudofractality of the magnetoelectronic spectrum
垂直磁场中二维正方形晶格的电子光谱被称为霍夫施塔特蝴蝶[Hofstadter，Phys. Rev. B 14，2239（1976）。]。我们已经计算出准一维类似物的霍夫施塔特蝴蝶碳纳米管（CNT）。对于单壁CNT的情况，通过石墨烯倒易晶格中的区域折叠来实现平行于管轴的磁场是简单的。我们还研究了垂直的磁场，与平行的情况下，导致一个更丰富的，伪分形谱。此外，我们已经调查了磁场刺穿双壁碳纳米管，并发现强烈的签名的壁间相互作用所产生的霍夫施塔特蝴蝶光谱，这可以理解的帮助下，一个极小模型。在所有垂直磁场谱中普遍存在的是在特定能量和磁场值处存在尖点突变。解决沿管圆周的状态密度允许识别的蛇状态已经预测的非均匀磁场在二维电子气。一个解析模型的磁谱的电子在一个圆柱形表面上被用来解释的一些结果。
We study the Hofstadter butterfly and Landau levels of the twisted bilayer graphene (TBG). We show that the nontrivial fragile topology of the lowest two bands near the charge neutral point makes their Hofstadter butterfly generically connected with higher bands, closing the gap between the first and second conduction (valence) bands at a certain magnetic flux per unit cell. We also develop a momentum space method for calculating the TBG Hofstadter butterfly, from which we identify three phases where the Hofstadter butterflies of the lowest two bands and the higher bands are connected in diffe…
We theoretically study the Hofstadter butterfly of a triangular network model in minimally twisted bilayer graphene (mTBLG). The band structure manifests periodicity in energy, mimicking that of Floquet systems. The butterfly diagrams provide fingerprints of the model parameters and reveal the hidden band topology. In a strong magnetic field, we establish that mTBLG realizes low-energy Floquet topological insulators (FTIs) carrying zero Chern number, while hosting chiral edge states in bulk gaps. We identify the FTIs by analyzing the nontrivial spectral flow in the Hofstadter butterfly, and by…
The magnetic field affects the Bloch band structure in a couple of ways. First it breaks the Bloch band into magnetic subbands or the Landau levels are broadened into magnetic Bloch bands. The resulting group of subbands in the central portion of the energy scale is associated with the integer quantum Hall effect (IQHE). Then at high fields it changes the integrated density of states of the remaining lowest and topmost subband, respectively, which can be associated with fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE). Here, we employ the Maxwell Chern-Simons gauge theory to formulate the subband-gap map…
We theoretically introduce and study a three-dimensional Hofstadter model with linearly varying non-Abelian gauge potentials along all three dimensions. The model can be interpreted as spin-orbit coupling among a trio of Hofstadter butterfly pairs since each Cartesian surface ($xy$, $yz$, or $zx$) of the model reduces to a two-dimensional non-Abelian Hofstadter problem. By evaluating the commutativity among arbitrary loop operators around all axes, we derive its genuine (necessary and sufficient) non-Abelian condition, namely, at least two out of the three hopping phases should be neither 0 no…
Université Paris-Saclay（巴黎萨克雷大学）；CEA（法国原子能和替代能源委员会）；CNRS（法国国家科学研究中心）；SPEC（物质与环境研究实验室）；Laboratoire de Physique de l’Ecole normale supérieure（巴黎高等师范学院物理实验室）；ENS（巴黎高等师范学院）；Université PSL（巴黎文理研究大学）；Sorbonne Université（索邦大学）；Université Paris Cité（巴黎西岱大学）；CryoHEMT（CryoHEMT公司）；Centre de Nanosciences et de Nanotechnologies (C2N)（纳米科学与技术中心）；Research Center for Electronic and Optical Materials, National Institute for Materials Science（国立材料研究所电子与光学材料研究中心）；Research Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute for Materials Science（国立材料研究所材料纳米架构研究中心）
Moiré superlattices in two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures provide 20 an efficient way to engineer electron band properties. The recent discovery of exotic quantum phases and their interplay in twisted bilayer graphene (tBLG) has built this moiré system one of the most renowned condensed matter platforms (1-10). So far the studies of tBLG has been mostly focused on the lowest two flat moiré bands at the first magic angle θm1 ~ 1.1°, leaving high-order moiré bands and magic angles largely unexplored. Here we report 25 an observation of multiple well-isolated flat moiré ban…
We develop a generic $\mathbf{k}\cdot \mathbf{p}$ open momentum space method for calculating the Hofstadter butterfly of both continuum (Moiré) models and tight-binding models, where the quasimomentum is directly substituted by the Landau level (LL) operators. By taking a LL cutoff (and a reciprocal lattice cutoff for continuum models), one obtains the Hofstadter butterfly with in-gap spectral flows. For continuum models such as the Moiré model for twisted bilayer graphene, our method gives a sparse Hamiltonian, making it much more efficient than existing methods. The spectral flows in the Hof…
In a previous work [Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 047202 (2019)] a translationally invariant framework called quantum-electrodynamical Bloch (QED-Bloch) theory was introduced for the description of periodic materials in homogeneous magnetic fields and strongly coupled to the quantized photon field in the optical limit. For such systems, we show that QED-Bloch theory predicts the existence of fractal polaritonic spectra as a function of the cavity coupling strength. In addition, for the energy spectrum as a function of the relative magnetic flux we find that a terahertz cavity can modify the standard H…
The properties of the Hofstadter butterfly, a fractal, self similar spectrum of a two dimensional electron gas, are studied in the case where the system is additionally illuminated with monochromatic light. This is accomplished by applying Floquet theory to a tight binding model on the honeycomb lattice subjected to a perpendicular magnetic field and either linearly or circularly polarized light. It is shown how the deformation of the fractal structure of the spectrum depends on intensity and polarization. Thereby, the topological properties of the Hofstadter butterfly in presence of the oscil…
In the presence of crystalline symmetries, topological phases of matter acquire a host of invariants leading to non-trivial quantized responses. Here we study a particular invariant, the discrete shift $\mathscr{S}$, for the square lattice Hofstadter model of free fermions. $\mathscr{S}$ is associated with a $\mathbb{Z}_M$ classification in the presence of $M$-fold rotational symmetry and charge conservation. $\mathscr{S}$ gives quantized contributions to (i) the fractional charge bound to a lattice disclination, and (ii) the angular momentum of the ground state with an additional, symmetrical…
We point out that the recent conjectural solution to the spectral problem for the Hamiltonian $H=e^{x}+e^{-x}+e^{p}+e^{-p}$ in terms of the refined topological invariants of a local Calabi-Yau geometry has an intimate relation with two-dimensional non-interacting electrons moving in a periodic potential under a uniform magnetic field. In particular, we find that the quantum A-period, determining the relation between the energy eigenvalue and the Kahler modulus of the Calabi-Yau, can be found explicitly when the quantum parameter $q=e^{i\hbar}$ is a root of unity, that its branch cuts are given…
The Hofstadter model, well-known for its fractal butterfly spectrum, describes two-dimensional electrons under a perpendicular magnetic field, which gives rise to the integer quantum hall effect. Inspired by the real-space building blocks of non-Abelian gauge fields from a recent experiment [Science, 365, 1021 (2019)], we introduce and theoretically study two non-Abelian generalizations of the Hofstadter model. Each model describes two pairs of Hofstadter butterflies that are spin-orbit coupled. In contrast to the original Hofstadter model that can be equivalently studied in the Landau and sym…
