The realization of synthetic gauge fields has attracted a lot of attention recently in relation to periodically driven systems and the Floquet theory. In ultracold atom systems in optical lattices and photonic networks, this allows one to simulate exotic phases of matter such as quantum Hall phases, anomalous quantum Hall phases, and analogs of topological insulators. In this paper, we apply the Floquet theory to engineer anisotropic Haldane models on the honeycomb lattice and two-leg ladder systems. We show that these anisotropic Haldane models still possess a topologically nontrivial band structure associated with chiral edge modes. Focusing on (interacting) boson systems in
s-wave bands of the lattice, we show how to engineer through the Floquet theory, a quantum phase transition (QPT) between a uniform superfluid and a Bose-Einstein condensate analog of Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov states, where bosons condense at nonzero wave vectors. We perform a Ginzburg-Landau analysis of the QPT on the graphene lattice, and compute observables such as chiral currents and the momentum distribution. The results are supported by exact diagonalization calculations and compared with those of the isotropic situation. The validity of high-frequency expansion in the Floquet theory is also tested using time-dependent simulations for various parameters of the model. Last, we show that the anisotropic choice for the effective vector potential allows a bosonization approach in equivalent ladder (strip) geometries.
Constructing new topological materials is of vital interest for the development of robust quantum applications. However, engineering such materials often causes technological overhead, such as large magnetic fields, spin-orbit coupling, or dynamical superlattice potentials. Simplifying the experimental requirements has been addressed on a conceptual level-by proposing to combine simple lattice structures with Floquet engineering-but there has been no experimental implementation. Here, we demonstrate topological pumping in a Floquet-Bloch band using a plain sinusoidal lattice potential and two-tone driving with frequencies ω and 2ω. We adiabatically prepare a near-insulating Floquet band of ultracold fermions via a frequency chirp, which avoids gap closings en route from trivial to topological bands. Subsequently, we induce topological pumping by slowly cycling the amplitude and the phase of the 2ω drive. Our system is well described by an effective Shockley model, establishing a novel paradigm to engineer topological matter from simple underlying lattice geometries. This approach could enable the application of quantized pumping in metrology, following recent experimental advances on two-frequency driving in real materials.