Imaging topology of Hofstadter ribbons

Physical systems with non-trivial topological order find direct applications in metrology[1] and promise future applications in quantum computing[2,3]. The quantum Hall effect derives from transverse conductance, quantized to unprecedented precision in accordance with the system's topology[4]....

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2018-04
Main Authors: Genkina, Dina, Aycock, Lauren M, Lu, Hsin-I, Pineiro, Alina M, Lu, Mingwu, Spielman, I B
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Condensed matter physics
Electromagnetism
Magnetic fields
Neutral atoms
Quantum computing
Quantum Hall effect
Resistance
Topology
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Physical systems with non-trivial topological order find direct applications in metrology[1] and promise future applications in quantum computing[2,3]. The quantum Hall effect derives from transverse conductance, quantized to unprecedented precision in accordance with the system's topology[4]. At magnetic fields beyond the reach of current condensed matter experiment, around 10^4 Tesla, this conductance remains precisely quantized but takes on different values[5]. Hitherto, quantized conductance has only been measured in extended 2-D systems. Here, we engineered and experimentally studied narrow 2-D ribbons, just 3 or 5 sites wide along one direction, using ultracold neutral atoms where such large magnetic fields can be engineered[6-11]. We microscopically imaged the transverse spatial motion underlying the quantized Hall effect. Our measurements identify the topological Chern numbers with typical uncertainty of 5%, and show that although band topology is only properly defined in infinite systems, its signatures are striking even in nearly vanishingly thin systems.
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.1804.06345