Synthetic gauge fields for ultracold neutral atoms—engineered using the interaction between laser fields and the atoms’ internal ‘spin’ degrees of freedom—provide promising techniques for generating the large (synthetic) magnetic fields required to reach the fractional quantum Hall (FQH) limit in …
Tutorial: Synthetic gauge potentials for ultracold neutral atoms Read more »
We study the interplay between large-spin, spin-orbit coupling, and superfluidity for bosons in a two-dimensional optical lattice, focusing on the spin-1 spin-orbit-coupled system recently realized at the Joint Quantum Institute [Campbell et al., arXiv:1501.05984]. We find a rich quantum phase …
Interaction-driven exotic quantum phases in spin-orbit-coupled spin-1 bosons Read more »
We demonstrate that dynamical probes provide direct means of detecting the topological phase transition (TPT) between conventional and topological phases, which would otherwise be difficult to access because of loss or heating processes. We propose to avoid such heating by …
Dynamical Detection of Topological Phase Transitions in Short-Lived Atomic Systems Read more »
We consider ultracold atoms in a two-dimensional optical lattice of the dice geometry in a tight-binding regime. The atoms experience a laser-assisted tunneling between the nearest neighbor sites of the dice lattice accompanied by the momentum recoil. This allows one …
We theoretically explore atomic Bose–Einstein condensates (BECs) subject to position-dependent spin–orbit coupling (SOC). This SOC can be produced by cyclically laser coupling four internal atomic ground (or metastable) states in an environment where the detuning from resonance depends on position. …
Position-dependent spin–orbit coupling for ultracold atoms Read more »
Gauge fields are central in our modern understanding of physics at all scales. At the highest energy scales known, the microscopic universe is governed by particles interacting with each other through the exchange of gauge bosons. At the largest length …
Nathan Goldman et al‘s result describing techniques for measuring topology in a laser-coupled honeycomb lattice has been featured as a “Highlight of 2013” by The New Journal of Physics! This rocks! Highlights page: http://iopscience.iop.org/1367-2630/page/highlights-of-2013 Article: http://iopscience.iop.org/1367-2630/15/1/013025/article
We describe a simple technique for generating a cold-atom lattice pierced by a uniform magnetic field. Our method is to extend a one-dimensional optical lattice into the “dimension” provided by the internal atomic degrees of freedom, yielding a synthetic two-dimensional …
We present a new technique for producing two- and three-dimensional Rashba-type spin-orbit couplings for ultracold atoms without involving light. The method relies on a sequence of pulsed inhomogeneous magnetic fields imprinting suitable phase gradients on the atoms. For sufficiently short …
Magnetically Generated Spin-Orbit Coupling for Ultracold Atoms Read more »
Creating and measuring topological matter – with non-local order deeply embedded in the global structure of its quantum mechanical eigenstates – presents unique experimental challenges. Since this order has no signature in local correlation functions, it might seem experimentally inaccessible …
Review article: Detection of topological matter with quantum gases Read more »