Repository logo
 

Realization of an anomalous Floquet topological system with ultracold atoms

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Wintersperger, K 
Braun, C 
Liberto, MD 

Abstract

Coherent control via periodic modulation, also known as Floquet engineering, has emerged as a powerful experimental method for the realization of novel quantum systems with exotic properties. In particular, it has been employed to study topological phenomena in a variety of different platforms. In driven systems, the topological properties of the quasienergy bands can often be determined by standard topological invariants, such as Chern numbers, which are commonly used in static systems. However, due to the periodic nature of the quasienergy spectrum, this topological description is incomplete and new invariants are required to fully capture the topological properties of these driven settings. Most prominently, there are two-dimensional anomalous Floquet systems that exhibit robust chiral edge modes, despite all Chern numbers being equal to zero. Here we realize such a system with bosonic atoms in a periodically driven honeycomb lattice and infer the complete set of topological invariants from energy gap measurements and local Hall deflections.

Description

Keywords

cond-mat.quant-gas, cond-mat.quant-gas, quant-ph

Journal Title

Nature Physics

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1745-2473
1745-2481

Volume Title

16

Publisher

Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Sponsorship
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/P009565/1)