Determination of Chern numbers with a phase retrieval algorithm
Abstract
Ultracold atoms in optical lattices form a clean quantum simulator platform which can be utilized to examine topological phenomena and test exotic topological materials. Here we propose an experimental scheme to measure the Chern numbers of two-dimensional multiband topological insulators with bosonic atoms. We show how to extract the topological invariants out of a sequence of time-of-flight images by applying a phase retrieval algorithm to matter waves. We illustrate advantages of using bosonic atoms as well as efficiency and robustness of the method with two prominent examples: the Harper-Hofstadter model with an arbitrary commensurate magnetic flux and the Haldane model on a brick-wall lattice.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1812.05375,
title = {Determination of Chern numbers with a phase retrieval algorithm},
author = {Tomasz Szołdra and Krzysztof Sacha and Arkadiusz Kosior},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1812.05375},
year = {2019}
}
Comments
Version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. A (11 pages, 8 figures)