Wednesday, April 18, 2012

1110.6120 (Li-Jun Lang et al.)

Edge states and topological phases in one-dimensional optical
superlattices
   [PDF]

Li-Jun Lang, Xiaoming Cai, Shu Chen
We show that one-dimensional quasi-periodic optical lattice systems can exhibit edge states and topological phases which are generally believed to appear in two-dimensional systems. When the Fermi energy lies in gaps, the Fermi system on the optical superlattice is a topological insulator characterized by a nonzero topological invariant. The topological nature can be revealed by observing the density profile of a trapped fermion system, which displays plateaus with their positions uniquely determined by the ration of wavelengths of the bichromatic optical lattice. The butterfly-like spectrum of the superlattice system can be also determined from the finite-temperature density profiles of the trapped fermion system. This finding opens an alternative avenue to study the topological phases and Hofstadter-like spectrum in one-dimensional optical lattices.
View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1110.6120

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