Manipulating Z2 and Chern topological phases in a single material using periodically driving fields

Abstract

$Z_{2}$ and Chern topological phases such as newly discovered quantum spin Hall and original quantum Hall states hardly both co--exist in a single material due to their contradictory requirement on the time--reversal symmetry (TRS). We show that although the TRS is broken in systems with a periodically driving ac-field, an effective TRS can still be defined provided the ac--field is linearly polarized or certain other conditions are satisfied. The controllable TRS provides us with a route to manipulate $Z_{2} $ and Chern topological phases in a single material by tuning the polarization of the ac--field. To demonstrate the idea, we consider a generic honeycomb lattice model as a benchmark system that is relevant to electronic structures of several monolayered materials. Our calculation shows that not only the transitions between $Z_{2}$ and Chern phases can be induced but also features such as the dispersion of the edge states can be controlled. This opens the possibility of manipulating various topological phases in a single material and can be a promising approach to engineer some new electronic states of matter.