Irradiation with light provides a powerful tool to interrogate, control or induce new quantum states of matter out of equilibrium, however a microscopic understanding of light-matter coupling in interacting electron systems remains a profound challenge. Here, we show that light grants a new quantum-geometric handle to steer and probe correlated quantum materials, whereby photons can couple directly to the shape and center of the maximally-localized Wannier functions that comprise the material’s interacting bands, dressing both electronic motion and electronic interactions with light. Notably, this effect is generic to any material and purely geometric in origin, but dominates emergent optical responses in correlated electron systems with poorly localized or obstructed Wannier functions. Spectroscopic consequences are first illustrated for a paradigmatic strongly interacting model with a tunable Wannier obstruction. We then present ramifications for non-equilibrium control of moir’e heterostructures and find that subjecting magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene to weak THz radiation can conspire with a fragile topological obstruction to profoundly alter the material’s competing interactions and tune across boundaries to competing phases.
Published in: "arXiv Material Science".