English

Semi-synthetic zigzag optical lattice for ultracold bosons

Quantum Gases 2016-12-30 v3 Quantum Physics

Abstract

We consider a one-dimensional "zigzag" lattice, pictured as a two-site wide single strip taken from a triangular lattice, affected by a tunable homogeneous magnetic flux piercing its triangular plaquettes. We focus on a semi-synthetic lattice produced by combining a one-dimensional spin-dependent lattice in the long direction with laser-induced transitions between atomic internal states that define the short synthetic dimension. In contrast to previous studies on semi-synthetic lattices, the atom-atom interactions are nonlocal in both lattice directions. We investigate the ground-state properties of the system for the case of strongly interacting bosons, and find that the interplay between the frustration induced by the magnetic field and the interactions gives rise to an exotic gapped phase at fractional filling factors corresponding to one particle per magnetic unit cell.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1610.00709,
  title  = {Semi-synthetic zigzag optical lattice for ultracold bosons},
  author = {Egidijus Anisimovas and Mantas Račiūnas and Christoph Sträter and André Eckardt and I. B. Spielman and Gediminas Juzeliūnas},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1610.00709},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

9 pages, 6 figures; v3: final version to appear in PRA