Designing Non-Equilibrium Phases of Matter with Time-Periodic Drives

Speaker: 
Iliya Esin
Institution: 
Bar-Ilan University
Date: 
Tuesday, March 10, 2026
Time: 
11:00 am
Location: 
NSII 1201

Abstract: “Floquet engineering” - the design of band structures on demand through coherent time periodic drives, has emerged as a powerful route to inducing exotic phenomena in otherwise conventional materials. In this talk, I will discuss how Floquet engineering can be used to generate novel non-equilibrium phases of matter in the steady states of driven semiconductors. These steady states arise from the interplay between coherent driving, electron-electron interactions, and dissipation due to coupling to phonons and the electromagnetic environment. I will show that, despite the strongly non-equilibrium nature of these systems, an appropriate choice of material, drive protocol, and environment can stabilize steady states exhibiting topological and strongly correlated phases with no equilibrium analogues.

Host: 
Thomas Scaffidi