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arXiv:1008.4752 · Physical Review Letters

Unconventional Superfluid Order in the F Band of a Bipartite Optical Square Lattice

Matthias Ölschläger, Georg Wirth, Andreas Hemmerich

Published Jan 6, 2011• 94 citations
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Abstract

We report on the first observation of bosons condensed into the energy minima of an F band of a bipartite square optical lattice. Momentum spectra indicate that a truly complex-valued staggered angular momentum superfluid order is established. The corresponding wave function is composed of alternating local F2x3-3x ± iF2y3-3y orbits and local S orbits residing in the deep and shallow wells of the lattice, which are arranged as the black and white areas of a checkerboard. A pattern of staggered vortical currents arises, which breaks time-reversal symmetry and the translational symmetry of the lattice potential. We have measured the populations of higher order Bragg peaks in the momentum spectra for varying relative depths of the shallow and deep lattice wells and find remarkable agreement with band calculations.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.106.015302

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We report on the first observation of bosons condensed into the energy minima of an F band of a bipartite square optical lattice. Momentum spectra indicate that a truly complex-valued staggered angular momentum superfluid order is established. The corresponding wave function is composed of alternating local F2x3-3x ± iF2y3-3y orbits and local S orbits residing in the deep and shallow wells of the lattice, which are arranged as the black and white areas of a checkerboard. A pattern of staggered vortical currents arises, which breaks time-reversal symmetry and the translational symmetry of the lattice potential. We have measured the populations of higher order Bragg peaks in the momentum spectra for varying relative depths of the shallow and deep lattice wells and find remarkable agreement with band calculations.
We study a model of interacting bosons that occupy the first excited ppp-band states of a two-dimensional optical lattice. In contrast to the much studied single band Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian, this more complex model allows for nontrivial superfluid phases associated with condensation at nonzero momentum and staggered order of the orbital angular momentum in addition to the superfluid-Mott insulator transition. More specifically, we observe staggered orbital angular momentum order in the Mott phase at commensurate filling and superfluidity at all densities. We also observe a transition between the staggered angular momentum superfluid phase and a striped superfluid, with an alternation of the phase of the superfluid along one direction. The transition between these two phases was observed in a recent experiment, which is then qualitatively well described by our model.
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We study bosons in the first excited Bloch band of a double-well optical lattice, recently realized at NIST. By calculating the relevant parameters from a realistic nonseparable lattice potential, we find that in the most favorable cases, the boson lifetime in the first excited band can be several orders of magnitude longer than the typical nearest-neighbor tunneling time scales, in contrast with that of a simple single-well lattice. In addition, for sufficiently small lattice depths, the excited band has minima at nonzero momenta incommensurate with the lattice period, which opens a possibility to realize an exotic superfluid state that spontaneously breaks the time-reversal, rotational, and translational symmetries. We discuss possible experimental signatures of this novel state.
The study of superconductivity with unconventional order is complicated in condensed matter systems by their extensive complexity. Optical lattices with their exceptional precision and control allow one to emulate superfluidity avoiding many of the complications of condensed matter. A promising approach to realize unconventional superfluid order is to employ orbital degrees of freedom in higher Bloch bands. In recent work, indications were found that bosons condensed in the second band of an optical chequerboard lattice might exhibit p x ± i p y order. Here we present experiments, which provide strong evidence for the emergence of p x ± i p y order driven by the interaction in the local p-orbitals. We compare our observations with a multi-band Hubbard model and find excellent quantitative agreement.
Abstract This article provides a synopsis of our recent experimental work exploring Bose–Einstein condensation in metastable higher Bloch bands of optical lattices. Bipartite lattice geometries have allowed us to implement appropriate band structures, which meet three basic requirements: the existence of metastable excited states sufficiently protected from collisional band relaxation, a mechanism to excite the atoms initially prepared in the lowest band with moderate entropy increase, and the possibility of cross-dimensional tunneling dynamics, necessary to establish coherence along all lattice axes. A variety of bands can be selectively populated and a subsequent thermalization process leads to the formation of a condensate in the lowest energy state of the chosen band. As examples the 2nd, 4th and 7th bands in a bipartite square lattice are discussed. The geometry of the 2nd and 7th bands can be tuned such that two inequivalent energetically degenerate energy minima arise at the X ± -points at the edge of the 1st Brillouin zone. In this case even a small interaction energy is sufficient to lock the phase between the two condensation points such that a complex-valued chiral superfluid order parameter can emerge, which breaks time reversal symmetry. In the 4th band a condensate can be formed at the Γ-point in the center of the 1st Brillouin zone, which can be used to explore topologically protected band touching points. The new techniques to access orbital degrees of freedom in higher bands greatly extend the class of many-body scenarios that can be explored with bosons in optical lattices.
We explore the properties of bosonic atoms loaded into the d bands of an isotropic square optical lattice. Following the recent experimental success reported in Zhai et al (2013 Phys. Rev. A 87 063638 ), in which populating d bands with a 99 fidelity was demonstrated, we present a theoretical study of the possible phases that can appear in this system. Using the Gutzwiller ansatz for the three d band orbitals we map the boundaries of the Mott insulating phases. For not too large occupation, two of the orbitals are predominantly occupied, while the third, of a slightly higher energy, remains almost unpopulated. In this regime, in the superfluid phase we find the formation of a vortex lattice, where the vortices come in vortex/anti-vortex pairs with two pairs locked to every site. Due to the orientation of the vortices time-reversal symmetry is spontaneously broken. This state also breaks a discrete -symmetry. We further derive an effective spin-1/2 model that describe the relevant physics of the lowest Mott-phase with unit filling. We argue that the corresponding two dimensional phase diagram should be rich with several different phases. We also explain how to generate anti-symmetric spin interactions that can give rise to novel effects like spin canting.