Dirac electron in a chiral space-time crystal created by counterpropagating circularly polarized plane electromagnetic waves

Abstract

The family of solutions to the Dirac equation for an electron moving in an electromagnetic lattice with the chiral structure created by counterpropagating circularly polarized plane electromagnetic waves is obtained. At any nonzero quasimomentum, the dispersion equation has two solutions which specify bispinor wave functions describing electron states with different energies and mean values of momentum and spin operators. The inversion of the quasimomentum results in two other linearly independent solutions. These four basic wave functions are uniquely defined by eight complex scalar functions (structural functions), which serve as convenient building blocks of the relations describing the electron properties. These properties are illustrated in graphical form over a wide range of quasimomentums. The superpositions of two basic wave functions describing different spin states and corresponding to (i) the same quasimomentum (unidirectional electron states with the spin precession) and (ii) the two equal-in-magnitude but oppositely directed quasimomentums (bidirectional electron states) are also treated.