Revivals of electron currents and topological-band insulator transitions in 2D gapped Dirac materials

¹ Departamento de Física Atómica, Molecular y Nuclear - Fuentenueva s/n, 18071 Granada, Spain
² Instituto Carlos I de Física Teórica y Computacional, Universidad de Granada - Fuentenueva s/n, 18071 Granada, Spain
³ Departamento de Electrónica y Tecnología de Computadores, Universidad de Granada - Fuentenueva s/n, 18071 Granada, Spain
⁴ Departamento de Electromagnetismo y Física de la Materia - Fuentenueva s/n, 18071 Granada, Spain

Received: 27 May 2016
Accepted: 27 July 2016

Abstract

We have studied the time evolution of electron wave packets in silicene under perpendicular magnetic and electric fields to characterize topological-band insulator transitions. We have found that at the charge neutrality points, the periodicities exhibited by the wave packet dynamics (classical and revival times) reach maximum values, and that the electron currents reflect the transition from a topological insulator to a band insulator. This provides a signature of topological phase transition in silicene that can be extended to other 2D Dirac materials isostructural to graphene and with a buckled structure and a significant spin-orbit coupling.