Unconventional Floquet topological phases from quantum engineering of band inversion surfaces

Abstract: Floquet engineering provides a toolbox for the realization of novel quantum phases without static counterparts, while conventionally the realization may rely on the manipulation of complex temporal evolution. Here we propose a systematic and high-precision scheme to realize unconventional Floquet topological phases by engineering local band structures in particular momentum subspace called band inversion surfaces (BISs). This scheme is based on a new bulk-boundary correspondence that for a class of generic $d$-dimensional periodically driven systems, the local topological structure formed in each BIS uniquely determines the features of gapless boundary modes. By engineering the BIS configuration we demonstrate a highly efficient approach to realize, manipulate, and detect novel Floquet topological phases. In particular, we predict a two-dimensional (2D) anomalous Floquet valley-Hall phase which carries trivial global bulk topological invariants but features protected counter-propagating edge states in each quasienergy gap. The unconventional nature of this novel 2D phase is further illustrated by the examination of edge geometry dependence and its robustness to disorder scattering. Anomalous chiral topological phases with valley protection in higher dimension are also predicted and studied. Our systematic and highly feasible scheme opens a new route to realize and engineer unconventional Floquet topological phases for ultracold atoms and other quantum simulators.