• Accepted Paper

Floquet superlattices and edge states in graphene nanoribbons

Siam Sarower, Jonathon Dvorscak, Nancy P. Sandler, and Mahmoud M. Asmar

Phys. Rev. B - Accepted 4 November, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/trrv-6mhy

Abstract

Structured light provides a route to imprint spatially patterned Floquet potentials onto quantum materials. As a particular example, we study a zigzag graphene nanoribbon driven by two coherent tilted beams, whose interference creates a periodic polarization pattern that gives rise to a photo-induced superlattice. Finite edge-state penetration distinguishes integer-period matching, which retains edge degeneracy up to tunneling, from half-integer-period matching, which generally splits the branches. We propose a two-edge model that captures these shifts through residual hybridization and the Floquet mass. The edge-state quasienergy shifts reverse between valleys, leading to a valley-resolved boundary response. Our results establish light-induced superlattices as a flexible method for controlling valley-resolved boundary spectra in finite-size Dirac-like materials through tunable edge-state quasienergy splitting.

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