NOTICE: Due to a lapse in annual appropriations, most of this website is not being updated. Learn more.

Form submissions will still be accepted but will not receive responses at this time. Sections of this site for programs using non-appropriated funds (such as NVLAP) or those that are excepted from the shutdown (such as CHIPS and NVD) will continue to be updated.

U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

PUBLICATIONS

Measuring Topology in a Laser-Coupled Honeycomb Lattice: From Chern Insulators to Topological Semi-Metals

Published

Author(s)

Ian B. Spielman, Nathan Goldman, Egidijus Anisimovas, Fabrice Gerbier, Patrick Ohberg, Gediminas Juzeliunas

Abstract

Ultracold fermions trapped in a honeycomb optical lattice constitute a versatile setup to experimentally realize the Haldane model. In this system, a non-uniform synthetic magnetic flux can be engineered through laser-induced methods, explicitly breaking time-reversal symmetry. This potentially opens a bulk gap in the energy spectrum, which is associated with a non-trivial topological order, i.e., a non-zero Chern number. In this work, we consider the possibility of producing and identifying such a robust Chern insulator in the laser-coupled honeycomb lattice. We explore a large parameter space spanned by experimentally controllable parameters and obtain a variety of phase diagrams, clearly identifying the accessible topologically non-trivial regimes. We discuss the signatures of Chern insulators in cold-atom systems, considering available detection methods. We also highlight the existence of topological semi-metals in this system, which are gapless phases characterized by non-zero winding numbers, not present in Haldane's original model.
Citation
New Journal of Physics
Pub Type
Journals

Download Paper

DOI Link

Keywords

artificial gauge fields, chern numbers, time-of-flight

Citation

Spielman, I. , , N. , Anisimovas, E. , Gerbier, F. , Ohberg, P. and Juzeliunas, G. (2013), Measuring Topology in a Laser-Coupled Honeycomb Lattice: From Chern Insulators to Topological Semi-Metals, New Journal of Physics, [online], https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/15/1/013025 (Accessed October 11, 2025)

Issues

If you have any questions about this publication or are having problems accessing it, please contact [email protected].

Created January 14, 2013, Updated November 10, 2018
Was this page helpful?