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arXiv · 2610.28396

Orbital-angular-momentum control of localized Floquet states and photocurrents in Weyl semimetals

Kyle S. Netherwood·Juan I. Aranzadi·Nils Jacobsen·Michael A. Sentef·Sang Soon Oh
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Abstract

Structured light provides a route to controlling quantum materials not only through its polarization, but also through its spatial profile and orbital angular momentum (OAM). We develop real space theories of a Weyl semimetal driven by a vortex beam and show that optical OAM generates highly localized Floquet vortex states with pronounced circulating photocurrents. Exploiting cylindrical symmetry, we derive a Bogoliubov-de Gennes-like radial equation that resolves the states by angular momentum and reveals their evolution between the light-dressed Weyl cones. For Laguerre-Gaussian beams, the spatially varying drive produces strong hybridization between localized vortex states and bulk states. We complement this continuum description with a Wilson-lattice formulation that retains the full two-dimensional spatial structure and enables direct calculation of local photocurrents. Both approaches consistently identify OAM-induced vortex states localized around the beam axis. The lattice calculation further shows that these states support substantially stronger circulating current densities than the more extended surface states, with the largest current densities associated with the most strongly localized, low-angular-momentum vortex modes. Our results establish optical OAM as a tunable control parameter for creating and manipulating localized current-carrying states in Weyl systems and provide a real-space framework for studying photocurrents generated by spatially structured light.

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Kyle S. Netherwood, Juan I. Aranzadi, Nils Jacobsen, Michael A. Sentef, Sang Soon Oh. 2026-10-20. Orbital-angular-momentum control of localized Floquet states and photocurrents in Weyl semimetals. https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.28396

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