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arXiv:2601.04837

Floquet-driven tunneling control in monolayer MoS$_2$

Rachid El Aitouni, Aotmane En Naciri, Clarence Cortes, David Laroze, Ahmed Jellal

cond-mat.mes-hallquant-phSubmitted Jan 8, 2026• Announced Jan 9, 2026
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Abstract

We study how fermions in molybdenum disulfide MoS$_2$ interact with a laser field and a static potential barrier, focusing on the transmission probability. Our aim is to understand and control photon-assisted quantum transport in this two-dimensional material under external driving. We use the Floquet approximation to describe the wave functions in the three regions of the system. By applying continuity conditions at the boundaries, we obtain a set of equations involving an infinite number of Floquet modes. We explicitly determine transmissions involving the central band $E$ and the first sidebands $E \pm \hbarω$. As for higher-order bands, we use the transfer matrix approach together with current density to compute the associated transmissions. Our results reveal that the transmission probability oscillates for both spin-up and spin-down electrons. The oscillations of spin-down electrons occur over nearly twice the period of spin-up electrons. Among all bands, the central one consistently shows the highest transmission. We also find that stronger laser fields and wider barriers both lead to reduced transmission. Moreover, laser irradiation enables controllable channeling and filtering of transmission bands by tuning the laser intensity and system parameters. This highlights the potential of laser-driven MoS$_2$ structures for highly sensitive electromagnetic sensors and advanced optoelectronic devices.

Comments
12 pages, 7 figures. Version to appear in Ann. Phys. (2026)

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Floquet-driven tunneling control in monolayer MoS2_22​
We study how fermions in molybdenum disulfide MoS2_22​ interact with a laser field and a static potential barrier, focusing on the transmission probability. Our aim is to understand and control photon-assisted quantum transport in this two-dimensional material under external driving. We use the Floquet approximation to describe the wave functions in the three regions of the system. By applying continuity conditions at the boundaries, we obtain a set of equations involving an infinite number of Floquet modes. We explicitly determine transmissions involving the central band EEE and the first sidebands E±ℏωE \pm \hbarωE±ℏω. As for higher-order bands, we use the transfer matrix approach together with current density to compute the associated transmissions. Our results reveal that the transmission probability oscillates for both spin-up and spin-down electrons. The oscillations of spin-down electrons occur over nearly twice the period of spin-up electrons. Among all bands, the central one consistently shows the highest transmission. We also find that stronger laser fields and wider barriers both lead to reduced transmission. Moreover, laser irradiation enables controllable channeling and filtering of transmission bands by tuning the laser intensity and system parameters. This highlights the potential of laser-driven MoS2_22​ structures for highly sensitive electromagnetic sensors and advanced optoelectronic devices.
Laser-assisted tunneling in a static tungsten diselenide WSe2_22​ barrier
We study the tunneling effect of Dirac fermions in a monolayer WSe2_22​ subjected to a static electrostatic barrier and irradiated by a linearly polarized laser field. Within the Floquet formalism, the time-periodic driving is incorporated to derive analytical wave functions across the three regions of the system. By enforcing continuity conditions at the interfaces, we obtain the transmission and reflection coefficients, which are then used to evaluate the conductance via the Büttiker approach. Our results reveal that the laser field induces a rich Floquet sideband structure, whose number and strength increase with the driving parameter ααα. This leads to a significant suppression of transmission and provides an efficient mechanism to overcome Klein tunneling. Moreover, increasing the width of the irradiated region enhances the interaction between fermions and the external field, resulting in energy renormalization and the formation of Stark-like confined states. The interaction between several Floquet channels creates strong interference effects, which reduce the transmitted current even further. The results demonstrate that light-matter interaction allows for the dynamic control of quantum transport in WSe2_22​ materials. This technology allows for the development of new optoelectronic devices, including tunable quantum filters and light-controlled nanoscale transistors.
We study how electrons move across a graphene sheet when it encounters two magnetic barriers with a region in between that is continuously driven by laser light. Rather than acting as a static obstacle, this illuminated middle section becomes a Floquet cavity that opens new transport channels through controlled photon absorption and emission. By combining Floquet theory with the transfer matrix method, we track electron transmission through both the main energy band and the emerging photon-assisted sidebands. We find that the laser does more than modify the potential--it reshapes how electrons interact between the magnetic barriers, enabling a switch from ordinary transmission to transport dominated by photon exchange. Because the magnetic field and the optical drive are applied to separate sections of the device, the system supports interference between cyclotron-filtered motion and discrete photon-pumping channels, producing Fano resonances and angle-dependent transmission zeros that cannot appear in double magnetic or double laser barrier systems alone. Under well-defined conditions, the distance between the magnetic barriers controls the coupling between Floquet channels, allowing highly tunable resonances and even perfect transmission, despite strong magnetic confinement. We also observe that low-energy carriers are efficiently blocked by the magnetic regions, while conductance steadily rises with energy until it reaches a clear saturation plateau. This hybrid design provides a versatile way to steer graphene electrons by balancing optical pumping and magnetic momentum filtering.
Field-tunable spin-valley transport in monolayer MoS2_22​
We study field-controlled spin-valley transport in monolayer MoS2_22​ through a single electrostatic barrier and a uniform off-resonant elliptically polarized irradiation. Starting from the massive Dirac Hamiltonian with intrinsic spin-orbit coupling, we use a high-frequency Floquet expansion to obtain an effective static model with a laser-renormalized mass (gap) term. We solve the scattering problem by spinor matching and derive the exact analytic expression for the transmission. The numerical results show that the drive tunes both the spin-valley-dependent propagation threshold inside the barrier and the Fabry-Pérot phase, creating controllable pass/stop bands. By varying both the laser intensity (amplitude) and the polarization shape, we show that the same junction can be switched between broadband valley filtering and resonance-selective operation, and the valley contrast remains visible in the Landauer conductance. Our findings establish an efficient route for realizing optically reconfigurable valleytronic and spintronic functionalities in MoS2_22​.
Electron transport in graphene under a laser-modulated barrier is studied in the presence of an energy gap, a scalar potential, and a uniaxial zigzag strain. The transfer-matrix approach is used with the boundary conditions to derive the transmission probabilities as functions of different system parameters. Without strain, raising either the energy gap or the potential generally reduces transmission in the central and lower sidebands. Moderate zigzag strain generates pronounced Fano-type oscillations that vanish at large strain, while transmission increases for low potential and decreases for high values. In the upper sideband, the incidence energy shifts the resonance peaks to the right, and growing the barrier width generates characteristic oscillatory patterns. Furthermore, increasing the laser field amplitude enhances transmission, whereas higher laser frequencies tend to suppress it. These findings offer new perspectives on controlling electronic transport in gapped graphene via external fields, strain, and potential applications in optoelectronic devices.
Strain- and potential-controlled tunneling in monolayer MoS2_22​
We present a theoretical study of spin- and valley-resolved quantum transport in monolayer MoS2_22​ under the combined influence of mechanical strain and an external scalar potential, a combination whose simultaneous unexplored. Within an effective massive Dirac Hamiltonian that incorporates intrinsic spin--orbit coupling, strain induces valley-dependent momentum shifts that lift the degeneracy between the KKK and K′K'K′ valleys and strongly modify the transport characteristics. The scalar potential modifies the tunneling spectrum, leading to pronounced changes in resonant transmission, Fabry--Pérot interference, and conductance. We show that the interplay between strain and electrostatic potential enables efficient control of both valley and spin polarization of the transmitted current. In particular, we identify a dual-knob control scheme in which the barrier width governs the frequency of conductance oscillations while strain independently controls their phase and amplitude. Furthermore, we predict electrostatic spin inversion -- a sign reversal of spin polarization achievable purely by gate tuning at finite strain, requiring no geometric reconfiguration. Depending on the strain orientation, the transmission probability and conductance can be selectively suppressed or enhanced, resulting in highly tunable valley- and spin-polarized transport. These findings demonstrate that strain and potential engineering provide orthogonal and independently operable mechanisms for controlling conductance as well as spin and valley degrees of freedom in monolayer MoS2_22​, offering promising prospects for spintronic and valleytronic device applications.
This work investigates the Floquet dynamics of electrons and excitons (particle-hole pairs) in a Dirac material referred to as Kekulé-distorted graphene. Specifically, we examine the role played by a high frequency driving electromagnetic field on the tunneling and blocking by a potential barrier on both the charged single particles as well as the neutral composite particles. We demonstrate that the small effective masses of the electron and hole for the energy spectrum of this Kekulé distorted graphene leads to practically almost perfect transmission across a symmetric potential barrier for any angle of incidence of impinging excitons. However, this unexpected Klein paradox for excitons does not hold for the single-particle electrons. The reduced total transmission of electron due to Kekulé distortion is more suppressed due to irradiation. Additionally, we calculate and investigate the exciton binding energy since the quantum tunneling of a bound electron-hole pair across a potential barrier is governed by its mass measured in the center of mass and binding energy of the composite pair. Thus, irradiation with circularly polarized light fundamentally modifies exciton formation, coherence and transport properties, thereby producing unusual topological behaviors. These behaviors are unlike conventional Dirac materials. Possible technical applications of the results arising from our investigation include valleytronics due to the folding of the valleys, thereby making intervalley coupling feasible. Other practical applications include optoelectronics due to Floquet tuning of energy spectrum and transport properties.