Generation of valley pump currents in silicene

We propose a workable scheme for generating a bulk valley pump current in a silicene-based device which consists of two pumping regions characterized by time-dependent strain and staggered potentials, respectively. In a one-dimension model, we show that a pure valley current can be generated, in which the two valley currents have the same magnitude but flow in opposite directions. Besides, the pumped valley current is quantized and maximized when the Fermi energy of the system locates in the bandgap opened by the two pumping potentials. Furthermore, the valley current can be finely controlled by tuning the device parameters. Our results are useful for the development of valleytronic devices based on two-dimensional materials.