Nodal Topological Phases in s-wave Superfluid of Ultracold Fermionic Gases

The gapless Weyl superfluid has been widely studied in the three-dimensional ultracold fermionic superfluid.In contrast to Weyl superfluid, there exists another kind of gapless superfluid with topologically protected nodal lines,which can be regarded as the superfluid counterpart of nodal line semimetal in the condensed matter physics, just as Weyl superfluid with Weyl semimetal. In this paper we study the ground states of the cold fermionic gases in cubic optical lattices with one-dimensional spin-orbit coupling and transverse Zeeman field and map out the topological phase diagram of the system. We demonstrate that in addition to a fully gapped topologically trivial phase, some different nodal line superfluid phases appear when the Zeeman field is adjusted. The presence of topologically stable nodal lines implies the dispersionless zero-energy flat band in a finite region of the surface Brillouin zone. Experimentally these nodal line superfluid states can be detected via the momentum-resolved radio-frequency spectroscopy. The nodal line topological superfluid provide fertile grounds for exploring exotic quantum matters in the context of ultracold atoms.     

An experimental approach for investigating many-body phenomena in Rydberg-interacting quantum systems

Recent developments in the study of ultracold Rydberg gases demand an adwanced level of experimental sophistication, in which high atomic and optical densities must be combined with excellent control of external fields and sensitive Rydberg atom detection. We describe a tailored experimental system used to produce and study Rydberg-interacting atoms excited from dense ultracold atomic gases. The experiment has been optimized for fast duty cycles using a high flux cold atom source and a three beam optical dipole trap. The latter enables tuning of the atomic density and temperature over several orders of magnitude, all the way to the Bose--Einstein condensation transition. An elec- trode structure surrounding the atoms allows for precise control over electric fields and single-particle sensitive field ionization detection of Rydberg atoms. We review two experiments which highlight the influence of strong Rydberg---Rydberg interactions on different many-body systems. First, the Rydberg blockade effect is used to pre-structure an atomic gas prior to its spontaneous evolution into an ultracold plasma. Second, hybrid states of photons and atoms called dark-state polaritons are studied. By looking at the statistical distribution of Rydberg excited atoms we reveal correlations between dark-state polaritons. These experiments will ultimately provide a deeper understanding of many-body phenomena in strongly-interacting regimes, including the study of strongly-coupled plasmas and interfaces between atoms and light at the quantum level.     

Topological quantum matter with cold atoms

This is an introductory review of the physics of topological quantum matter with cold atoms. Topological quantum phases, originally discovered and investigated in condensed matter physics, have recently been explored in a range of different systems, which produced both fascinating physics findings and exciting opportunities for applications. Among the physical systems that have been considered to realize and probe these intriguing phases, ultracold atoms become promising platforms due to their high flexibility and controllability. Quantum simulation of topological phases with cold atomic gases is a rapidly evolving field, and recent theoretical and experimental developments reveal that some toy models originally proposed in condensed matter physics have been realized with this artificial quantum system. The purpose of this article is to introduce these developments. The article begins with a tutorial review of topological invariants and the methods to control parameters in the Hamiltonians of neutral atoms. Next, topological quantum phases in optical lattices are introduced in some detail, especially several celebrated models, such as the Su–Schrieffer–Heeger model, the Hofstadter–Harper model, the Haldane model and the Kane–Mele model. The theoretical proposals and experimental implementations of these models are discussed. Notably, many of these models cannot be directly realized in conventional solid-state experiments. The newly developed methods for probing the intrinsic properties of the topological phases in cold-atom systems are also reviewed. Finally, some topological phases with cold atoms in the continuum and in the presence of interactions are discussed, and an outlook on future work is given.     

磁场中拓扑物态的量子输运

拓扑物态包括拓扑绝缘体、拓扑半金属以及拓扑超导体.拓扑物态奇异的能带结构以及受拓扑保护的新奇表面态,使其具有了独特的输运性质.拓扑半金属作为物质的一种三维拓扑态具有无能隙的准粒子激发,根据导带和价带的接触类型分为外尔半金属、狄拉克半金属和节线半金属.本文以拓扑半金属为主回顾了在磁场下拓扑物态中量子输运的最新工作,在不同...     

Quantum optics with quantum gases

Quantum optics with quantum gases represents a new field, where the quantum nature of both light and ultracold matter plays equally important role. Only very recently this ultimate quantum limit of light-matter interaction became feasible experimentally. In traditional quantum optics, the cold atoms are considered classically, whereas, in quantum atom optics, the light is used as an essentially classical auxilary tool. On the one hand, the quantization of optical trapping potentials can significantly modify many-body dynamics of atoms, which is well-known only for classical potentials. On the other hand, atomic fluctuations can modify the properties of the scattered light.     

磁光阱中冷原子的实验特性

冷原子的获得对于原子物理的研究具有重要的意义,文章综述了激光冷却与囚禁原子技术发展以来对磁光阱中中性冷原子特性的研究进展,包括冷原子对光子的吸收与散射,冷原子之间的吸引与排斥导致的超冷碰撞与长程分子状态,朱子的非线性特性等。     

外尔半金属及其输运特性

外尔半金属是继石墨烯以及拓扑绝缘体之后的又一个研究热点。相比于后两者,外尔半金 属独特的三维无能隙线性色散能带结构使得它有很多奇特的性质,如：手性反常、手性磁效应、 反弱局域化、手性朗道能级和负磁阻效应等。实际样品中无序总是不可避免的,所以考虑无序对 体系的影响是很有必要的。我们回顾了无序下第一类以及第二类外尔半金属的相变特性,并获得 了完整的相图,这些无序诱导的相变丰富了拓扑安德森绝缘体和安德森金属绝缘体相变的物理内 涵。我们同样回顾了长程短程无序影响下的第一类外尔半金属体系的输运,发现了一种不能采用 玻尔兹曼输运方程来描述的输运过程。我们介绍Imbert-Fedorov 位移这一光学中的效应在外尔 半金属中的实现,这为更好地应用外尔半金属提供了更多的可能性,随后采用波包散射,我们解 释了外尔半金属中的超高载流子迁移率问题的原因,最后我们给出一个简要的总结。     

Electronic Properties of Strained Double‐Weyl Systems

The effects of strains on the low‐energy electronic properties of double‐Weyl phases are studied in solids and cold‐atom optical lattices. The principal finding is that deformations do not couple, in general, to the low‐energy effective Hamiltonian as a pseudoelectromagnetic gauge potential. The response of an optical lattice to strains is simpler, but still only one of the several strain‐induced terms in the corresponding low‐energy Hamiltonian can be interpreted as a gauge potential. Most interestingly, the strains can induce a nematic order parameter that splits a double‐Weyl node into a pair of Weyl nodes with the unit topological charges. The effects of deformations on the motion of wavepackets in the double‐Weyl optical lattice model are studied. It is found that, even in the undeformed lattices, the wavepackets with opposite topological charges can be spatially split. Strains, however, modify their velocities in a very different way and lead to a spin polarization of the wavepackets.     

磁性外尔半金属材料研究现状与展望

外尔半金属是拓扑半金属家族中的一员。理想的外尔半金属费米面附近有且仅有非简并价带和导带形成的孤立能带交叉点,其低能激发准粒子可以用描述手性外尔费米子的外尔方程来刻画。在三维固体中形成外尔半金属态需要破缺时间反演、中心反演以及它们的组合对称操作。外尔点(即能带交叉点)具有拓扑稳定性和确定的手性或磁荷,且左右手性外尔点需成对出现。非磁性外尔半金属TaAs家族材料的发现,使得研究具有手征性的电子态,及其导致的新物性、新现象成为可能。与非磁性外尔半金属相比,磁性外尔半金属可以仅仅具有一对外尔点,是最简单的外尔半金属,有利于物理机理的分析。磁性外尔半金属可用于实现具有本征磁性的量子反常霍尔效应,提供了通过外磁场来调控外尔点及其相关效应的新手段。文章介绍了磁性外尔半金属的理论模型、拓扑数计算等基本原理,简要回顾了一些典型材料的理论计算和实验研究进展,并介绍了磁性拓扑量子化学理论和磁性拓扑材料的高通量计算,最后讨论了磁性外尔半金属的发展前景和未来的研究方向。     

Local blockade of Rydberg excitation in an ultracold gas

In the laser excitation of ultracold atoms to Rydberg states, we observe a dramatic suppression caused by van der Waals interactions. This behavior is interpreted as a local excitation blockade: Rydberg atoms strongly inhibit excitation of their neighbors. We measure suppression, relative to isolated atom excitation, by up to a factor of 6.4. The dependences of this suppression on both laser irradiance and atomic density are in good agreement with a mean-field model. These results are an important step towards using ultracold Rydberg atoms in quantum information processing.     

Trapping of ultracold atoms in a 3He/4He dilution refrigerator

We describe the preparation of ultracold atomic clouds in a dilution refrigerator. The closed-cycle ³He/⁴He cryostat was custom made to provide optical access for laser cooling, optical manipulation and detection of atoms. We show that the cryostat meets the requirements for cold atom experiments, specifically in terms of operating a magneto-optical trap, magnetic traps and magnetic transport under ultrahigh vacuum conditions. The presented system is a step toward the creation of a quantum hybrid system combining ultracold atoms and solid-state quantum devices.     

Phase-Modulated 2D Topological Physics in a One-Dimensional Ultracold System

We propose a one-dimensional optical lattice model to simulate and explore two-dimensional topological phases with ultracold atoms,considering the phases of the hopping strengths as an extra dimension.It is shown that the model exhibits nontrivial phases,and corresponding two chiral-edge states.Moreover,we demonstrate the connections between changes in the topological invariants and the Dirac points.Furthermore,the topological order detected by the particle pumping approach in cold atoms is also investigated.The results obtained here provide a feasible and flexible method of simulating and exploring high-dimensional topological phases in lowdimension systems via the controllable phase of the hopping strength.     

超冷原子-分子转化动力学：受激拉曼绝热过程

超冷分子是超冷原子分子物理领域的新的热点研究课题。分子具有更多的自由度,能级结构密集、复杂,直接激光冷却存在困难。目前,人们一般借助外场把超冷原子耦合获得超冷分子。受激拉曼绝热暗通道技术~(stimulated Raman adiabatic passage,STIRAP)作为其中一种非常有效地将超冷原子转化为超冷分子的方法已被广泛地研究。该文主要针对STIRAP过程中超冷原子-分子转化系统的动力学,绝热性、稳定性等理论研究的进展进行综述。     

超冷极性分子

目前对超冷原子的研究已经从最初的原子分子物理扩展到了物理的很多分支.极性分子可以将电偶极相互作用引入到超冷体系,同时分子又与原子类似,可以灵活地被光和其他电磁场操控,因而很多理论工作都预言了超冷极性分子在超冷化学、量子模拟和量子信息等领域会有重要的应用.但由于超冷基态分子的制备非常困难,如何把超冷物理从原子发展到分子还是一个方兴未艾的课题.过去的10年间,各种分子冷却技术都取得了很大突破,本文回顾了这些进展,并着重介绍了基于异核冷原子的磁缔合结合受激拉曼转移这一技术,该技术在制备高密度的基态碱金属超冷极性分子上取得了较大的成功.本文也总结了超冷极性碱金属分子基本碰撞特性研究的一些实验结果.     

Hexagonal wurtzite MnO in ferromagnetic state: A magnetic topological spin-gapless Weyl semimetal

Magnetic topological materials have attracted increasingly attentions in recent years due to their exotic electronic behaviors emerging from the couplings of topological, magnetic, and crystalline symmetries. In this work, based on the first-principles calculations, we propose that hexagonal wurtzite MnO is a magnetic topological spin-gapless semi-half-metal with two pairs of type-I Weyl fermions near the Fermi level in ferromagnetic state, which is a promising candidate material in spintronic and piezoelectric applications. In the absence of spin-orbit coupling (SOC), it hosts one triple degeneracy point (TP) in the irreducible Brillouin zone. Owing to weak SOC, the TP splits into two type-I Weyl points that are very close to each other. The Fermi arc surface states connecting the projected Weyl points with opposite chirality are observed. Our results therefore provide a wonderful platform to study the interplay of magnetism and topology.     

Mg-CO(X1Σ+)体系的冷碰撞动力学

应用量子散射动力学方法, 研究了电场条件下Mg-CO体系的冷碰撞动力学性质, 探索了外电场对碰撞体系低场追索态的弹性和非弹性截面的影响, 为碱土金属Mg原子感应冷却CO分子提供理论预测.     

Superexchange-mediated magnetization dynamics with ultracold alkaline-earth atoms in an optical lattice

Superexchange and inter-orbital spin-exchange interactions are key ingredients for understanding(orbital) quantum magnetism in strongly correlated systems and have been realized in ultracold atomic gases.Here we study the spin dynamics of ultracold alkaline-earth atoms in an optical lattice when the two exchange interactions coexist.In the superexchange interaction dominating regime,we find that the time-resolved spin imbalance shows a remarkable modulated oscillation,which can be attributed to the interplay between local and nonlocal quantum mechanical exchange mechanisms.Moreover,the filling of the long-lived excited atoms affects the collapse and revival of the magnetization dynamics.These observations can be realized in state-dependent optical lattices combined with the state-of-the-art advances in optical lattice clock spectroscopy.     

基于光晶格的超冷原子量子模拟

文章从超冷原子研究的视角出发,回顾了用“从下到上”的方案来开展量子模拟研究的历史。超冷原子作为宏观量子态,各个自由度精确可控,是量子模拟的绝佳平台。光晶格将冷原子物理和凝聚态物理融合起来,是其中最重要的技术之一,为超冷原子量子模拟提供了一个扎实的落脚点。近年来,关于拓扑量子模拟的研究日益兴起,成为超冷原子量子模拟新的重要方向。文章介绍这方面近期的一些工作进展。最后分享作者对超冷原子量子模拟的一些思考。