Transport Properties of Non-Equilibrium Systems Under the Application of Light: Photo-Induced Quantum Hall Insulators Without Landau Levels

Abstract

In this paper, we study transport properties of nonequilibrium systems under the application of light in many-terminal measurements, using the Floquet picture. We propose and demonstrate that the quantum transport properties can be controlled in materials such as graphene and topological insulators, via the application of light. Remarkably, under the application of off-resonant light, topological transport properties can be induced; these systems exhibit quantum Hall effects in the absence of a magnetic field with a near quantization of the Hall conductance, realizing so-called quantum Hall systems without Landau levels first proposed by Haldane.