Merging of Dirac points and Floquet topological transitions in ac-driven graphene

Abstract

We investigate the effect of an in-plane ac electric field coupled to electrons in the honeycomb lattice and show that it can be used to manipulate the Dirac points of the electronic structure. We find that the position of the Dirac points can be controlled by the amplitude and the polarization of the field for high-frequency drivings, providing a new platform to achieve their merging, a topological transition which has not been observed yet in electronic systems. Importantly, for lower frequencies we find that the multiphoton absorptions and emissions processes yield the creation of additional pairs of Dirac points. This provides an additional method to achieve the merging transition by just tuning the frequency of the driving. Our approach, based on Floquet formalism, is neither restricted to specific choice of amplitude or polarization of the field, nor to a low-energy approximation for the Hamiltonian. © 2013 American Physical Society.