Optical Selection Rules in Spin–Orbit Coupled Systems on Honeycomb Lattice

Abstract

We investigate the optical properties in a minimal model of spin-orbit coupled systems on honeycomb lattice at half-filling. The absorption of the circularly polarized light in the charge and antiferromagnetic ordered states is particularly studied, and the spin-valley selective excitation depending on the handedness of the light is found. It is shown that the optical selection rules plainly differ with the type of broken symmetries and topological properties of the electronic states. Consequently, the abrupt change of spin-valley selectivity in the optical absorption occurs at the topological transition caused by changing the magnitude of the order parameters.