Eur. Phys. J. B (2014) 87: 241
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2014-50291-1

Regular Article

Valley-spin polarization in the magneto-optical response of square lattice

School of Science, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, P.R. China

^a e-mail: wangyixiang0406@gmail.com

Received: 7 May 2014
Received in final form: 29 June 2014
Published online: 20 October 2014

Abstract

In this work, we try to investigate the magneto-optical response of the square lattice model, in which the quantum spin Hall effect will occur when spin is introduced to the anisotropy next-nearest-neighboring hoppings. In the presence of Landau level quantization, we analyze the optical absorption spectrum and reveal the valley-spin polarization of the electrons when the total filling factor in the system changes. We also study the optical Hall conductivity behavior to find the signatures of valley-spin polarization. The implications of our results are discussed.