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Title: Geometric effects in the effective-mass theory and topological optical superlattices

Abstract

Cold atoms tailored by an optical lattice have become a fascinating arena for simulating quantum physics. In this area, one important and challenging problem is creating effective spin-orbit coupling (SOC), especially for fashioning a cold atomic gas into a topological phase, for which prevailing approaches mainly rely on the Raman coupling between the atomic internal states and a laser field. Herein, a strategy for realizing effective SOC is proposed by exploiting the geometric effects in the effective-mass theory, without resorting to internal atomic states. Furthermore, it is shown that the geometry of Bloch states can have nontrivial effects on the wave-mechanical states under external fields, leading to effective SOC and an effective Darwin term, which have been neglected in the standard effective-mass approximation. It is demonstrated that these relativisticlike effects can be employed to introduce effective SOC in a two-dimensional optical superlattice, and induce a nontrivial topological phase.

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [3]
  1. Peking Univ., Beijing (China)
  2. Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States)
  3. Peking Univ., Beijing (China); Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, Beijing (China); Univ. of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing (China)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
OSTI Identifier:
1614565
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1480152
Grant/Contract Number:  
FG03-02ER45958
Resource Type:
Journal Article: Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Physical Review A
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 98; Journal Issue: 4; Journal ID: ISSN 2469-9926
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS; Optics; Physics; Cold atoms & matter waves; Impurities; Spin-orbit coupling; Synthetic gauge fields; Topological phases of matter

Citation Formats

Li, Chao-Kai, Niu, Qian, and Feng, Ji. Geometric effects in the effective-mass theory and topological optical superlattices. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1103/physreva.98.041603.
Li, Chao-Kai, Niu, Qian, & Feng, Ji. Geometric effects in the effective-mass theory and topological optical superlattices. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreva.98.041603
Li, Chao-Kai, Niu, Qian, and Feng, Ji. 2018. "Geometric effects in the effective-mass theory and topological optical superlattices". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreva.98.041603. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1614565.
@article{osti_1614565,
title = {Geometric effects in the effective-mass theory and topological optical superlattices},
author = {Li, Chao-Kai and Niu, Qian and Feng, Ji},
abstractNote = {Cold atoms tailored by an optical lattice have become a fascinating arena for simulating quantum physics. In this area, one important and challenging problem is creating effective spin-orbit coupling (SOC), especially for fashioning a cold atomic gas into a topological phase, for which prevailing approaches mainly rely on the Raman coupling between the atomic internal states and a laser field. Herein, a strategy for realizing effective SOC is proposed by exploiting the geometric effects in the effective-mass theory, without resorting to internal atomic states. Furthermore, it is shown that the geometry of Bloch states can have nontrivial effects on the wave-mechanical states under external fields, leading to effective SOC and an effective Darwin term, which have been neglected in the standard effective-mass approximation. It is demonstrated that these relativisticlike effects can be employed to introduce effective SOC in a two-dimensional optical superlattice, and induce a nontrivial topological phase.},
doi = {10.1103/physreva.98.041603},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1614565}, journal = {Physical Review A},
issn = {2469-9926},
number = 4,
volume = 98,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Oct 31 00:00:00 EDT 2018},
month = {Wed Oct 31 00:00:00 EDT 2018}
}

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