Optical tuning of Berry phase effect in topological insulators

We theoretically discuss the influence of driving laser field on the topological nature, one of the manifestation of the electron Berry phase effect, in two-dimensional electronic systems. Adiabatic change of the laser amplitude with circular polarization alters the “order parameter”, termed the Chern number, in topological insulator with broken time-reversal symmetry, resulting in photo-induced phase transition. The finding is an optical analog of the integer quantum Hall effect, that is triggered by the laser field instead of magnetic field. This parallelism suggests the similarity of effects to electron dynamics between circularly polarized light and magnetic field.