Edge Plasmons in Two-Component Electron Liquids in the Presence of Pseudomagnetic Fields

Abstract

We study the properties of edge plasmons in two-component electron liquids in the presence of pseudomagnetic fields, which have opposite signs for the two different electronic populations and therefore preserve the time-reversal symmetry. The physical realizations of such systems are many. We discuss the case of strained graphene, solving the problem with the Wiener-Hopf technique. We show (i) that two charged counterpropagating acoustic edge modes exist at the boundary and (ii) that, in the limit of large pseudomagnetic fields, each of them involves oscillations of only one of the two electronic components. We suggest that the edge pseudomagnetoplasmons of graphene can be used to selectively address the electrons of one specific valley, a feature relevant for the emerging field of valleytronics. Our solution highlights new features missing in previous (similar) results obtained with uncontrolled approximations, namely a logarithmic divergence of the plasmon velocity, and the absence of gapped edge modes inside the bulk-plasmon gap.