Recent experiments have realized ultracold gases in twisted-bilayer optical lattices. We show that interacting bosons in these lattices present a highly nontrivial ground-state physics resulting from the interplay between inter- and intralayer hopping and interactions. This physics is crucially determined by site clusterization, which we properly take into account by developing a specifically tailored cluster Gutzwiller approach. Clusterization results in a large variety of different Mott-like phases characterized by typically different occupations of the clusters, and in the appearance of pockets of sites in between which particles can freely move, but which remain for any practical purposes disconnected from the rest of the sites. This peculiar phase, which resembles the well-known Bose glass phase, may occur even for commensurate twist angles and is further enhanced when the twisting is incommensurate. Moreover, in the incommensurate case, the formation of mobility islands may occur even without interlayer hopping solely due to interlayer interactions.
Recent experiments have realized ultracold gases in twisted-bilayer optical lattices. We show that interacting bosons in these lattices present a highly nontrivial ground-state physics resulting from the interplay between inter- and intralayer hopping and interactions. This physics is crucially determined by site clusterization, which we properly take into account by developing a specifically tailored cluster Gutzwiller approach. Clusterization results in a large variety of different Mott-like phases characterized by typically different occupations of the clusters, and in the appearance of pockets of sites in between which particles can freely move, but which remain for any practical purposes disconnected from the rest of the sites. This peculiar phase, which resembles the well-known Bose glass phase, may occur even for commensurate twist angles and is further enhanced when the twisting is incommensurate. Moreover, in the incommensurate case, the formation of mobility islands may occur even without interlayer hopping solely due to interlayer interactions.
Recent experiments have realized a twisted-bilayer-like optical potential for ultracold atoms, which in contrast to solid-state setups may allow for an arbitrary ratio between the inter- and intralayer couplings. For commensurate moir\'e twistings, a large-enough interlayer coupling results in particle transport dominated by channel formation. For incommensurate twistings, the interlayer coupling acts as an effective disorder strength. Whereas for weak couplings the whole spectrum remains ergodic, at a critical value part of the eigenspectrum transitions into multifractal states. A similar transition may be observed as well as a function of an energy bias between the two layers. Our theoretical study reveals atoms in a twisted-bilayer system of square optical lattices as an interesting platform for the study of ergodicity breaking and multifractality.
Moiré related physics in twisted bilayer two-dimensional (2D) materials has attracted widespread interest in condensed matter physics. Simulation of moiré related physics in cold atom platform is expected to outperform the 2D materials thanks to its advantage of higher tunablility. Here, we demonstrate that, the cold atom platform enables a new mechanism of moiré lattice formation, induced by interlayer interaction with intrinsic "dynamical" character, in contrast to conventional moiré lattice induced by "static" ways such as single-particle interlayer tunneling. Specifically, we consider a twisted bilayer Bose-Hubbard model with vanishing interlayer tunneling, and the bilayer is solely coupled through interlayer interaction that originates from contact interaction of atoms. We find that this system hosts a plethora of novel phases unique to this dynamical lattice, including a variety of Mott insulator (MI) and superfluid (SF) phases either preserving or breaking moiré lattice symmetry, phases with one layer in SF and the other in MI, "interlocked" MI, and self-localized phases at commensurate twist angles, which exhibits the characteristics of Bose glass and quasi-many-body localization in the absence of (quasi)disorder or quasicrystalline lattices. Our prediction can be readily observed in current experimental setup of twisted bilayer optical lattices, opening up new avenues for exploring the rich physics of interaction induced moiré systems in cold atoms.
We investigate the ground-state and dynamical properties of ultracold Bose gases in optical lattices with a quasicrystal structure, inspired by recent experiments on twisted bilayer and quasicrystalline optical lattices. The interplay between on-site repulsive interactions and the quasiperiodic potential leads to rich physics. At low filling factors, increasing the interaction strength induces a delocalization effect that transforms a Bose-glass (BG) phase-characterized by disconnected superfluid (SF) regions-into a robust SF phase with a percolated network of SF clusters. This transition is quantitatively identified via the percolation probability. At higher filling factors, we uncover a reentrant behavior: with increasing interaction, the system first changes from BG to SF, but further strengthening reverses the trend, restoring the BG phase. This reentrance originates from an interaction-driven rearrangement of particles, where a percolated SF network fragments into isolated SF islands as repulsion dominates. The quench dynamics show distinct transient features: intraphase quenches cause minor variations in the percolation probability and the inverse participation ratio (IPR), while interphase quenches produce strong responses. In particular, an SF-to-BG quench exhibits an abrupt loss of global SF connectivity, whereas a BG-to-SF quench shows oscillatory percolation and a gradual IPR decrease, stabilizing the SF phase. These results elucidate the competition between quasiperiodicity and interactions in ultracold Bose gases and offer insights relevant to current experiments with twisted bilayer and quasicrystal optical lattices.
A controlled twist between separate potentials can drastically influence localization properties of quantum particles between ordered and (quasi)disordered limits. Transport properties of single-particle and correlated fermionic materials have been extensively studied in connection with twisted bilayer graphene, but their bosonic counterpart remains largely unexplored. Here, we study bosonic matter in twisted potentials. We use continuous-space quantum Monte Carlo simulations to determine the unique phase diagrams of strongly correlated ultracold bosons in twisted optical lattices. For commensurate twisting angles, spectral gaps govern the formation of insulators, separated by thin superfluid domains. These domains form weak superfluids; with low superfluid fraction at zero temperature and high sensitivity to thermal fluctuations, but may be stabilized under appropriate parameter control. In contrast, slightly changing the twisting angle to an incommensurate value destroys most spectral gaps, leaving behind a prominent Bose glass phase. Our results are directly applicable to current generation experiments that quantum simulate moiré physics. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
Abstract Observation of strong correlations and superconductivity in twisted-bilayer-graphene have stimulated tremendous interest in fundamental and applied physics. In this system, the superposition of two twisted honeycomb lattices, generating a Moire pattern, is the key to the observed flat electronic bands, slow electron velocity and large density of states. Despite these observations, a full understanding of the emerging superconductivity from the coupled layers and the appearance of a small magic angle remain a hot topic of research. Here, we demonstrate a quantum simulation platform to study superfluids in twisted bilayer lattices based on Bose-Einstein condensates loaded into spin-dependent optical lattices. The lattices are made of two sets of laser beams that independently address atoms in different spin states, which form the synthetic dimension accommodating the two layers. The twisted angle of the two lattices is controlled by the relative angle of the laser beams. We show that atoms in each spin state only feel one set of the lattice and the interlayer coupling can be controlled by microwave coupling between the spin states. Our system allows for flexible control of both the inter- and intralayer couplings. Furthermore we directly observe the spatial Moire pattern and the momentum diffraction, which confirm the presence of atomic superfluid in the bilayer lattices. Our system constitutes a powerful platform to investigate the physics underlying the superconductivity in twisted-bilayer-graphene and to explore other novel quantum phenomena difficult to realize in materials.
Recently, the simulation of moiré physics using cold atom platforms has gained significant attention. These platforms provide an opportunity to explore novel aspects of moiré physics that go beyond the limits of traditional condensed matter systems. Building on recent experimental advancements in creating twisted bilayer spin-dependent optical lattices for pseudospin-1/2 Bose gases, we extend this concept to a trilayer optical lattice for spin-1 Bose gases. Unlike conventional moiré patterns, which are typically induced by interlayer tunneling or interspin coupling, the moiré pattern in this trilayer system arises from inter-species atomic interactions. We investigate the ground state of Bose-Einstein condensates loaded in this spin-1 twisted optical lattice under both ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic interactions. We find that the ground state forms a periodic pattern of distinct phases in the homogeneous case, including ferromagnetic, antiferromagnetic, polar, and broken axial symmetry phases. Additionally, by quenching the optical lattice potential strength, we examine the quench dynamics of the system above the ground state and observe the emergence of topological excitations such as vortex pairs. This study provides a pathway for exploring the rich physics of spin-1 twisted optical lattices and expands our understanding of moiré systems in synthetic quantum platforms.