Engineering synthetic lattices with driven optical lattices

Anonymous

K. Sengstock

Fangzhao Alex An, Bhuvanesh Sundar, Junpeng Hou +5 more

The scope of analog simulation in atomic, molecular, and optical systems has expanded greatly over the past decades. Recently, the idea of synthetic dimensions-in which transport occurs in a space spanned by internal or motional states coupled by field-driven transitions-has played a key role in this expansion. While approaches based on synthetic dimensions have led to rapid advances in single-particle Hamiltonian engineering, strong interaction effects have been conspicuously absent from most synthetic dimensions platforms. Here, in a lattice of coupled atomic momentum states, we show that atomic interactions result in large and qualitative changes to dynamics in the synthetic dimension. We explore how the interplay of nonlinear interactions and coherent tunneling enriches the dynamics of a one-band tight-binding model giving rise to macroscopic self-trapping and phase-driven Josephson dynamics with a nonsinusoidal current-phase relationship, which can be viewed as stemming from a nonlinear band structure arising from interactions.

A. Hemmericl, Axel Görlitz, Matthias Weidemüller +1 more

Dominik Suszalski, Jakub Zakrzewski

The possibility of creating different geometries with the help of an extra synthetic dimension in optical lattices is studied. The additional linear potential together with Raman-assisted tunnelings are used to engineer well-controlled tunnelings between available states. The great flexibility of the system allows us to obtain different geometries of synthetic lattices with the possibility for adding synthetic gauge fields.

Bo Song, Chengdong He, Zejian Ren +3 more

We experimentally implement synthetic spin-orbit coupling in optical lattices with ultracold 173Yb fermions. We engineer band topology in one- and two-dimensional lattices and investigate topological states such as symmetry-protected topological phases in this spin-orbit-coupled system.