Dynamical merging of Dirac points in the periodically driven Kitaev honeycomb model

Abstract

We study the effect of a half wave rectified sinusoidal electromagnetic (EM) wave on the Kitaev honeycomb model with an additional magneto-electric coupling term {arising due to induced polarization of the bonds. Within the framework of Floquet analysis, we show that merging of a pair of Dirac points in the gapless region of the Kitaev model leading to a semi-Dirac spectrum is indeed possible} by externally varying the amplitude and the phase of the EM field.