Metal to insulator phase transitions in Floquet-Bloch systems*

Time-periodic drives provide a versatile tool for inducing topological phenomena in quantum many body systems. In this work, we study steady-states of low-dimensional semiconductors subjected to strong resonant periodic drives. Stable steady-states in these systems arise from the balance between phonon-assisted relaxation processes, electron-hole recombination via photo-emission and electron-electron scattering. We show that tuning the parameters of the phonon bath drives the system through a critical point, which separates an electron-hole metal phase from a Floquet insulator phase. Our results may help guide future studies towards inducing novel non-equilibrium phases of matter by periodic driving.