Floquet Engineering of Quantum Materials

Floquet engineering, the control of quantum systems using periodic driving, is an old concept in condensed matter physics, dating back to ideas such as the inverse Faraday effect. There is a renewed interest in this concept owing to the rapid developments in laser and ultrafast spectroscopy techniques and discovery and understanding of various "quantum materials" hosting interesting exotic quantum properties. Here, starting from a nontechnical introduction with emphasis on the Floquet picture and effective Hamiltonians, we review the recent applications of Floquet engineering in ultrafast, nonlinear phenomena in the solid state. In particular, Floquet topological states, application to ultrafast spintronics, and to strongly correlated electron systems are overviewed.