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Advanced Photonics Nexus

Nonlinear localization of ultracold atomic Fermi gas in moiré optical lattices

Xiuye Liu, Jianhua Zeng

Published Apr 24, 2024• 4 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Moiré superlattices, a twisted functional structure crossing the periodic and nonperiodic potentials, have recently attracted great interest in multidisciplinary fields, including optics and ultracold atoms, because of their unique band structures, physical properties, and potential implications. Driven by recent experiments on quantum phenomena of bosonic gases, the atomic Bose–Einstein condensates in moiré optical lattices, by which other quantum gases such as ultracold fermionic atoms are trapped, could be readily achieved in ultracold atom laboratories, whereas the associated nonlinear localization mechanism remains unexploited. Here, we report the nonlinear localization theory of ultracold atomic Fermi gases in two-dimensional moiré optical lattices. The linear Bloch-wave spectrum of such a twisted structure exhibits rich nontrivial flat bands, which are separated by different finite bandgaps wherein the existence, properties, and dynamics of localized superfluid Fermi gas structures of two types, gap solitons and gap vortices (topological modes) with vortex charge S=1, are studied numerically. Our results demonstrate the wide stability regions and robustness of these localized structures, opening up a new avenue for studying soliton physics and moiré physics in ultracold atoms beyond bosonic gases.

DOI
10.1117/1.apn.3.3.036006

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Moiré superlattices, a twisted functional structure crossing the periodic and nonperiodic potentials, have recently attracted great interest in multidisciplinary fields, including optics and ultracold atoms, because of their unique band structures, physical properties, and potential implications. Driven by recent experiments on quantum phenomena of bosonic gases, the atomic Bose–Einstein condensates in moiré optical lattices, by which other quantum gases such as ultracold fermionic atoms are trapped, could be readily achieved in ultracold atom laboratories, whereas the associated nonlinear localization mechanism remains unexploited. Here, we report the nonlinear localization theory of ultracold atomic Fermi gases in two-dimensional moiré optical lattices. The linear Bloch-wave spectrum of such a twisted structure exhibits rich nontrivial flat bands, which are separated by different finite bandgaps wherein the existence, properties, and dynamics of localized superfluid Fermi gas structures of two types, gap solitons and gap vortices (topological modes) with vortex charge S=1, are studied numerically. Our results demonstrate the wide stability regions and robustness of these localized structures, opening up a new avenue for studying soliton physics and moiré physics in ultracold atoms beyond bosonic gases.
Abstract In ultracold atomic gases, optical lattices and spin-orbit coupling are two important and useful linear means to study and control the nonlinear and quantum dynamics of matter waves, and both have been well realized in experiments. Here, nonlinear localization of spin-orbit-coupled Bose-Einstein condensates in moiré optical lattices is revealed theoretically, stressing the existence and stability of localized modes of diverse types including fundamental, half-vortex matter-wave gap solitons, and full-vortex ones (of both components). Notably, to our knowledge, a new type of vector vortex gap solitons, which is composed of a gap vortex soliton (singular mode) and a rhombic-array gap vortex (quadruple mode), is predicted in our two-component theoretical framework. It is also found that the model exhibits unique linear Bloch band structures including band splitting and extremely-flat bands, because of which all the predicted localized modes tend to be robustly stable, backed by our direct perturbed simulations. Our results demonstrate that the moiré pattern (and its joint cooperation with spin-orbit coupling) provides great possibilities to explore flat-band and moiré physics in ultracold atoms, and to further investigate the nonlinear dynamics.
Moiré superlattices, classified as a supercell periodic structure configured from a periodic lattice overlaps with its twisted counterpart, have been demonstrated to exhibit many emergent linear and nonlinear phenomena like moiré induced flat bands, unconventional superconductivity, unique linear classical wave localization and nonlinear localized modes. Recent studies are, however, mainly focused on twisted bilayer structures, the static and nonequilibrium physics of trilayer moiré superlattices have remained largely unknown. We here consider trilayer moiré optical lattices by which Bose−Einstein condensates are trapped, and demonstrate theoretically the emergent flat bands and nonlinear phenomena — localized gap modes in form of gap solitons and vortices with a topological charge s=1. We give a unified picture for constructing optimal (largest) photonic forbidden gaps in such trilayer moiré superlattices and reveal nonlinear localization mechanism therein. Computational studies demonstrated the robustness of these localized modes, enabling insightful inspections of moiré physics and exploring ongoing moiré photonics applications in twisted trilayer superlattices in optics and ultracold atoms.
Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) exhibits a variety of fascinating and unexpected macroscopic phenomena, and has attracted sustained attention in recent years—particularly in the field of solitons and associated nonlinear phenomena. Meanwhile, optical lattices have emerged as a versatile toolbox for understanding the properties and controlling the dynamics of BEC, among which the realization of bright gap solitons is an iconic result. However, the dark gap solitons are still experimentally unproven, and their properties in more than one dimension remain unknown. In light of this, we describe, numerically and theoretically, the formation and stability properties of gap-type dark localized modes in the context of ultracold atoms trapped in optical lattices. Two kinds of stable dark localized modes—gap solitons and soliton clusters—are predicted in both the one- and two-dimensional geometries. The vortical counterparts of both modes are also constructed in two dimensions. A unique feature is the existence of a nonlinear Bloch-wave background on which all above gap modes are situated. By employing linear-stability analysis and direct simulations, stability regions of the predicted modes are obtained. Our results offer the possibility of observing dark gap localized structures with cutting-edge techniques in ultracold atoms experiments and beyond, including in optics with photonic crystals and lattices.
We overview our recent theoretical studies on nonlinear atom optics of the Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) loaded into optical lattices. In particular, we describe the band-gap spectrum and nonlinear localization of BECs in one- and two-dimensional optical lattices. We discuss the structure and stability properties of spatially localized states (matter-wave solitons) in 1D lattices, as well as trivial and vortex-like bound states of 2D gap solitons. To highlight similarities between the behavior of coherent light and matter waves in periodic potentials, we draw useful parallels with the physics of coherent light waves in nonlinear photonic crystals and optically-induced photonic lattices.
Abstract Recent advances in spin-dependent optical lattices [ Meng et al . 2023 Nature 615 , 231 ] have enabled the experimental implementation of two superimposed three-dimensional lattices, presenting new opportunities to investigate three-dimensional moiré physics in ultracold atomic gases. This work studies the moiré physics of atoms within a spin-dependent cubic lattice with relative twists along different directions. It is discovered that dimensionality significantly influences the low-energy moiré physics. From a geometric perspective, this manifests in the observation that moiré patterns, generated by rotating lattices along different axes, can exhibit either periodic or quasi-periodic behavior—a feature not present in two-dimensional systems. We develop a low-energy effective theory applicable to systems with arbitrary rotation axes and small rotation angles. This theory elucidates the emergence of quasi-periodicity in three dimensions and demonstrates its correlation with the arithmetic properties of the rotation axes. Numerical analyses reveal that these quasi-periodic moiré potentials can lead to distinctive dimensional localization behaviors of atoms, manifesting as localized wave functions in planar or linear configurations.
We analyze the existence and stability of spatially extended (Bloch-type) and localized states of a Bose-Einstein condensate loaded into an optical lattice. In the framework of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation with a periodic potential, we study the band-gap structure of the matter-wave spectrum in both the linear and nonlinear regimes. We demonstrate the existence of families of spatially localized matter-wave gap solitons, and analyze their stability in different band gaps, for both repulsive and attractive atomic interactions.