An Aharonov-Bohm interferometer for determining Bloch band topology

The geometric structure of a single-particle energy band in a solid is fundamental for a wide range of many-body phenomena and is uniquely characterized by the distribution of Berry curvature over the Brillouin zone. We realize an atomic interferometer to measure Berry flux in momentum space, in ana...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2015-01, Vol.347 (6219), p.288-292
Main Authors: Duca, L., Li, T., Reitter, M., Bloch, I., Schleier-Smith, M., Schneider, U.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Berries
Electrons
Flux
Graphene
Interferometers
Interferometry
Materials science
Nailing
Optical lattices
Topology
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Summary:The geometric structure of a single-particle energy band in a solid is fundamental for a wide range of many-body phenomena and is uniquely characterized by the distribution of Berry curvature over the Brillouin zone. We realize an atomic interferometer to measure Berry flux in momentum space, in analogy to an Aharonov-Bohm interferometer that measures magnetic flux in real space. We demonstrate the interferometer for a graphene-type hexagonal optical lattice loaded with bosonic atoms. By detecting the singular π Berry flux localized at each Dirac point, we establish the high momentum resolution of this interferometric technique. Our work forms the basis for a general framework to fully characterize topological band structures.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.1259052