Photoinduced valley-resolved spin filter based on kagome-lattice nanoribbons

Abstract

Low-dimensional materials with topologically protected edge states have wide applications in spintronic, valleytronic, and optoelectronic nanodevices. Different from the valley-resolved quantum anomalous Hall (VQAH) state and spin-polarized quantum anomalous Hall (VSQAH), the photon-induced topological states in kagome-lattice nanoribbons (KLNR) can generate both valley and spin-polarized edge states without magnetic substrate or Rashba spin-orbit coupling (SOC). Via the Floquet theory, we also propose a 0-photon-extraction scheme to obtain the effective Hamiltonian under low-frequency light for the first time, and we analyze the topological properties and phase transition of the irradiated kagome system, similar with those in the high-frequency case. We then design an all-optically controlled valley-resolved spin filter based on KLNR. Transmissions and local current distributions of the proposed nanodevice confirm this spin-filter effect, which can indeed be switched by left- or right-circularly-polarized (LCP/RCP) light. We believe these optically controlled models can be extended to the design of magnetism-free spin-valley filter or switcher in the future.