Controllable Weyl nodes and Fermi arcs in a light-irradiated carbon allotrope

The precise control of Weyl physics in realistic materials offers a promising avenue to construct accessible topological quantum systems, and thus draws widespread attention in condensed-matter physics. Here, based on first-principles calculations, the maximally localized Wannier function based tight-binding model, and Floquet theorem, we study the light-manipulated evolution of Weyl physics in a carbon allotrope C6 crystallizing a face centered orthogonal structure (fco-C6), an ideal Weyl semimetal with two pairs of Weyl nodes, under irradiation of a linearly polarized light. We show that the positions of Weyl nodes and Fermi arcs can be accurately controlled by changing the light intensity. Moreover, we employ a low-energy effective k center dot p model to understand light controllable Weyl physics. The results indicate that the symmetry of light-irradiated fco-C6 can be selectively preserved, which guarantees that the light-manipulated Weyl nodes can only move in the high-symmetry plane in momentum space. Our work not only demonstrates the efficacy of employing periodic driving light fields as an efficient approach to manipulate the Weyl physics, but also paves a reliable pathway for designing accessible topological states under light irradiation.