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arXiv:1503.01810 · Physical Review A

One-dimensional topological chains with Majorana fermions in two-dimensional nontopological optical lattices

Lei Jiang, Chunlei Qu, Chuanwei Zhang

Published Jun 13, 2016• 4 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The recent experimental realization of one-dimensional (1D) equal Rashba-Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling (ERD-SOC) for cold atoms provides a disorder-free and highly controllable platform for the implementation and observation of Majorana fermions (MFs), analogous to the broadly studied solid-state nanowire-superconductor heterostructures. However, the corresponding 1D chains of cold atoms possess strong quantum fluctuation, which may destroy the superfluids and MFs. In this paper, we show that such 1D topological chains with MFs may be on demand generated in a two- or three-dimensional nontopological optical lattice with 1D ERD-SOC by modifying local potentials on target locations using experimentally already implemented atomic gas microscopes or patterned (e.g., double- or triple-well) optical lattices. All ingredients in our scheme have been experimentally realized, and the combination of them may pave the way for the experimental observation of MFs in a clean system.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.93.063614

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The recent experimental realization of one-dimensional (1D) equal Rashba-Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling (ERD-SOC) for cold atoms provides a disorder-free and highly controllable platform for the implementation and observation of Majorana fermions (MFs), analogous to the broadly studied solid-state nanowire-superconductor heterostructures. However, the corresponding 1D chains of cold atoms possess strong quantum fluctuation, which may destroy the superfluids and MFs. In this paper, we show that such 1D topological chains with MFs may be on demand generated in a two- or three-dimensional nontopological optical lattice with 1D ERD-SOC by modifying local potentials on target locations using experimentally already implemented atomic gas microscopes or patterned (e.g., double- or triple-well) optical lattices. All ingredients in our scheme have been experimentally realized, and the combination of them may pave the way for the experimental observation of MFs in a clean system.
We show that Majorana fermions (MFs) exist in twoand three-dimensional (2D,3D) fermionic optical lattices with strictly 1D spin-orbit coupling (SOC) which has already been realized in experiments. For a quasi-1D topological BCS superfluid, there are multiple MFs at each end which are topologically protected by a chiral symmetry. In the generalization to higher dimensions, the multiple MFs form a zero energy flat band. An additional experimentally tunable in-plane Zeeman field drives the system to a topological Fulde-Ferrell (FF) superfluid phase. We find that even though the multiple MFs are robust against the in-plane Zeeman field if the order parameters at the different chains are enforced to be identical, they are destroyed in the self-consistently obtained FF phase where the order parameters are inhomogeneous on the boundaries. Our results are useful to guide the experimentalists on searching for MFs in the context of ultracold fermionic atoms.
We study Majorana fermions (MFs) in quasi-one dimensional (quasi-1D) and higher-dimensional fermionic optical lattices with a strictly 1D spin-orbit coupling, which has already been realized in cold atom experiments. We show that when the superfluid order parameters are homogeneous and are enforced to be identical along different chains, there are multiple MFs at each end with or without an experimentally tunable in-plane Zeeman field Vy{V}_{y}Vy​. For Vy=0{V}_{y}=0Vy​=0 the multiple MFs are topologically protected by a chiral symmetry; however, for ${V}_{y}\ensuremath{\ne}0$ the existence of multiple MFs is related to the peculiar spectrum properties of the system despite the broken chiral symmetry. In the generalization to higher dimensions, the multiple MFs form a zero-energy flat band. Furthermore, when the superfluid order parameters are solved self-consistently, the multiple MFs are usually destroyed because of the inhomogeneous order parameters of either Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (Vy=0{V}_{y}=0Vy​=0) type or Fulde-Ferrell (${V}_{y}\ensuremath{\ne}0$) type. Our results are useful to guide the experimentalists on searching for MFs in ultracold spin-orbit coupled fermionic superfluids.
We propose an alternative experimental scheme to detect the non-Abelian statistics of the Majorana fermions (MF) with a trapped atomic bosonic gas subject to a spin-orbit coupling in 1D optical lattices. The spin-orbit coupling leads to a faithful simulation of an arbitrary tunable XY spin model, where the anisotropy of the effective spin coupling can be controlled by adjusting the optical potentials, Feshbach resonance, and spin-orbit coupling. MF are created at the ends of the optical lattice segment in topological phase. By controlling the different addressing laser beams, one can move, braid, and exchange them. We also show that the non-Abelian statistics of MF can be demonstrated through distinguishing the states before and after braiding by detecting the parity operator of collective spin states.
Abstract We explore the topological phase, which involves Majorana type topological zero mode fermions (MTZFs) at the edge, using d–wave superfluid with Rashba spin-orbit coupling (SOC) interactions. The self-Hermitian of this MTZF( γ†(k)=γ(k){{\boldsymbol{\gamma }}}^{{\boldsymbol{\dagger }}}{\boldsymbol{(}}{\bf{k}}{\boldsymbol{)}}{\boldsymbol{=}}{\boldsymbol{\gamma }}{\boldsymbol{(}}{\bf{k}}{\boldsymbol{)}}γ†(k)=γ(k) γ † ( k ) = γ ( k ) ) is similar to that of the Majorana fermions (MFs) ( γ†=γ{{\boldsymbol{\gamma }}}^{{\boldsymbol{\dagger }}}={\boldsymbol{\gamma }}γ†=γ γ † = γ ). We show that, to realize a single MTZF at each edge in superfluid with d–wave pairing in a Majorana type Kramers Doublet (MTKD) state, it is important to lift both the spin and the Dirac Cones degeneracies. These non-Abelian anyons obey the non-Abelian statistics which may be useful to realize topological quantum computation. We suggest that the topological feature could be tested experimentally in superfluids of cold fermionic atoms with laser field induced spin orbit interactions. These studies give a new possible way to investigate the MTZFs in a two-dimensional (2D) system as compared to MFs in the one-dimensional (1D) nano-wire and 2D system, and enrich the theoretical research on finding non-Abelian anyons in topological system.
We propose an experimental implementation of a topological superfluid with ultracold fermionic atoms. An optical superlattice is used to juxtapose a 1D gas of fermionic atoms and a 2D conventional superfluid of condensed Feshbach molecules. The latter acts as a Cooper pair reservoir and effectively induces a superfluid gap in the 1D system. Combined with a spin-dependent optical lattice along the 1D tube and laser-induced atom tunneling, we obtain a topological superfluid phase. In the regime of weak couplings to the molecular fl eld and for a uniform gas the atomic system is equivalent to Kitaev's model of a p-wave superfluid. Using a numerical calculation we show that the topological superfluidity is robust beyond the perturbative limit and in the presence of a harmonic trap. Finally we describe how to investigate some physical properties of the Majorana fermions located at the topological superfluid boundaries. In particular we discuss how to prepare and detect a given Majorana edge state.
Cold atoms with laser-induced spin-orbit (SO) interactions provide a platform to explore quantum physics beyond natural conditions of solids. Here we propose and experimentally realize two-dimensional (2D) SO coupling and topological bands for a rubidium-87 degenerate gas through an optical Raman lattice, without phase-locking or fine-tuning of optical potentials. A controllable crossover between 2D and 1D SO couplings is studied, and the SO effects and nontrivial band topology are observed by measuring the atomic cloud distribution and spin texture in momentum space. Our realization of 2D SO coupling with advantages of small heating and topological stability opens a broad avenue in cold atoms to study exotic quantum phases, including topological superfluids.