The orbital degree of freedom plays a fundamental role in understanding the unconventional properties in solid state materials. Experimental progress in quantum atomic gases has demonstrated that high orbitals in optical lattices can be used to construct quantum emulators of exotic models beyond natural crystals, where novel many-body states such as complex Bose-Einstein condensates and topological semimetals emerge. A brief introduction of orbital degrees of freedom in optical lattices is given and a summary of exotic orbital models and resulting many-body phases is provided. Experimental consequences of the novel phases are also discussed.
The orbital degree of freedom plays a fundamental role in understanding the unconventional properties in solid state materials. Experimental progress in quantum atomic gases has demonstrated that high orbitals in optical lattices can be used to construct quantum emulators of exotic models beyond natural crystals, where novel many-body states such as complex Bose-Einstein condensates and topological semimetals emerge. A brief introduction of orbital degrees of freedom in optical lattices is given and a summary of exotic orbital models and resulting many-body phases is provided. Experimental consequences of the novel phases are also discussed.
Spin and orbital are two basic degrees of freedom that play significant roles in exploring exotic quantum phases in optical lattices with synthetic spin-orbit coupling (SOC) and high orbital bands, respectively. Here, we combine these two crucial ingredients for the first time by proposing a completely new orbital optical Raman lattice scheme to explore exotic high-orbital Bose condensates with Raman-induced SOC in a square lattice. We find that both the SOC and p-orbital interactions influence the condensed state of bosons. Their interplay results in two novel high-orbital many-body quantum phases: the uniform angular momentum superfluid phase, which exhibits a global topological chiral orbital current characterized by a uniform Chern number, and the two-dimensional topological spin-orbital supersolid phase, which is characterized by the spin and orbital angular momentum density wave patterns and topological excitations with opposite Chern numbers, respectively protecting the chiral and antichiral edge modes in the neighboring supersolid clusters. Our scheme may open a new avenue for exploring exotic SOC and high-orbital physics in optical lattices, and is expected to advance the experimental realization of novel supersolids in higher dimensions.
Cold atoms with laser-induced spin-orbit (SO) interactions provide promising platforms to explore novel quantum physics, in particular the exotic topological phases, beyond natural conditions of solids. The past several years have witnessed important progresses in both theory and experiment in the study of SO coupling and novel quantum states for ultracold atoms. Here we review the physics of the SO coupled quantum gases, focusing on the latest theoretical and experimental progresses of realizing SO couplings beyond one-dimension (1D), and the further investigation of novel topological quantum phases in such systems, including the topological insulating phases and topological superfluids. A pedagogical introduction to the SO coupling for ultracold atoms and topological quantum phases is presented. We show that the so-called optical Raman lattice schemes, which combine the creation of the conventional optical lattice and Raman lattice with topological stability, can provide minimal methods with high experimental feasibility to realize 1D to 3D SO couplings. The optical Raman lattices exhibit novel intrinsic symmetries, which enable the natural realization of topological phases belonging to different symmetry classes, with the topology being detectable through minimal measurement strategies. We introduce how the non-Abelian Majorana modes emerge in the SO coupled superfluid phases which can be topologically nontrivial or trivial, for which a few fundamental theorems are presented and discussed. The experimental schemes for achieving non-Abelian superfluid phases are given. Finally, we point out the future important issues in this rapidly growing research field.
Matter waves inside periodic potentials are well known from solid-state physics, where electrons interacting with a crystal lattice are considered. Atomic Bose-Einstein condensates inside light-induced periodic potentials (optical lattices) share many features with electrons in solids, but also with light waves in nonlinear materials and other nonlinear systems. Generally, atom-atom interactions in Bose-Einstein condensates lead to rich and interesting nonlinear effects. Furthermore, the experimental control over the parameters of the periodic potential and the condensate make it possible to enter regimes inaccessible in other systems. In this review, an introduction to the physics of ultracold bosonic atoms in optical lattices is given and an overview of the theoretical and experimental advances to date.
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 study quantum phases and transitions in ultra-cold quantum gases, beyond the scope of conventional condensed matter systems. The study focuses on three major thrusts. The first thrust is the study of cold ensembles of bosonic or fermionic atoms in the higher orbital bands of optical lattices. Orbital and topological quantum physics is systematically explored for various lattice geometries, to be outlined below. The second is the low dimensional spin-imbalanced fermions in the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) phase. We analyze its thermal instability towards Berezinsky-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) phase transitions driven by different topological defects at finite temperature. The third is the theoretical search for a mechanism to achieve a Bose-Einstein crystal phase for bosons in the ground state. A new class of two-body interactions characterized by strong momentum-dependence is found to give rise to such a quantum state. It is different than but related to the long-debated concept of supersolidity. The first thrust forms the main part of the dissertation. Meta-stable phases of high orbital bosons and fermions have been explored for different lattice geometries such as square and bipartite lattices. Exotic Mott and superfluid phases are studied in both one and two dimensions. Quantum and thermal phase transitions, associated with time reversal symmetry breaking and their experimental signatures are discussed. In particular a quantum ``disordered" superfluid phase, beyond the mean field description, is found in one dimension. The challenging problem of probing time reversal symmetry breaking is solved. Besides, a one-dimensional fermionic optical ladder with coupled s- and p-orbitals is shown to mimic spin-orbit interactions and exhibit topological insulator and topological superconducting phases. Charge fractionalization is shown to be realizable in such an sp-orbital ladder.
In this dissertation we focus on many-body phenomena on a quantum level. In particular fermionic quantum gases in a temperature regime approaching absolute zero. Ultracold quantum gases have proven to be a versatile framework for Theorists and Experimentalists to probe many-body quantum mechanics. They also serve to quantum simulate solid state problems in a clean and controllable environment. The use of optical lattices include the advantage of tuning the required lattice structure nearly at will and lack the experimental shortcomings compared to the solid state, like the presence of lattice dislocations. The relevant lattice parameters can be easily tuned without changing the setup. In recent years many goals within theory and experiments of ultracold quantum gases in optical lattices were achieved. This emphasizes the significance of ongoing research with ultracold quantum gases on optical lattices. We present two aspects of modern theory of ultracold quantum gases in optical lattices. On the one hand, we implement orbital physics in a setup of optical lattices and on the other, we find elusive Majorana fermions in a setup with ultracold fermionic gases. Both aspects are well-known in solid state systems, but did not make the step towards ultracold quantum gases so far. We propose and investigate setups to quantum simulate these challenges in the framework of optical lattices. The first part of this work concerns the implementation of orbital physics in optical lattices. The orbital structure of atoms reveals novel phenomena in solid state systems. This raises the interest in creating optical lattice systems exhibiting analog behavior, as dictated by the orbitals in the solid state. We derive the microscopic Hamiltonian for a p-orbital system and investigate it in detail. For this Hamiltonian we perform a mean-field treatment and discover novel phase transitions including a possible tricritical point. In the analysis of the strong coupling regime we find an additional phase transition towards an antiferromagnet and then extend the mean-field phase diagram. Concluding the investigations is a proposal of an experimental setup to achieve orbital physics with state-of-the-art experimental tools. The second part of this work considers Majorana modes and p-wave superfluids. Majorana modes are not only present in high-energy physics, but also in condensed matter systems. Here we demonstrate a setup in order to simulate Majorana modes and p-wave superfluids in optical lattices. We derive an effective Hamiltonian and investigate it on a mean-field level as well as give the mean-field phase diagram. It contains a rich manifold of different p-wave phases. In addition, we extend our investigations to topological properties of our system and provide the topological phase diagram. We discover the special phenomena that the mean-field and topological phase transitions are decoupled in our system. The proposed system is suited to have Majorana modes at vortices and dislocations, which are injected into the system in controllable experimental manner. We conclude the considerations by giving a protocol for braiding in order to demonstrate non-Abelian statistics of Majorana modes.