Hannover 2013 – scientific programme
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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 31: Quantum gases: Optical lattices I
Q 31.8: Talk
Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 16:00–16:15, E 001
Direct Measurement of the Zak phase in Topological Bloch Bands — •Marcos Atala1,2, Monika Aidelsburger1,2, Julio T. Barreiro1,2, Dmitry Abanin3, Takuya Kitagawa3, Eugene Demler3, and Immanuel Bloch1,2 — 1Fakultät für Physik, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Schellingstr. 4, 80799 Munich, Germany — 2Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, Hans-Kopfermann Str. 1, 85748 Garching, Germany — 3Department of Physics, Harvard University, 17 Oxford Str., Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
In this talk I will present our latest results on the direct measurement of the Zak phase for a dimerized optical lattice, which models polyacetylene. The experimental protocol consists of a combination of Bloch oscillations and Ramsey interferometry from where we extract the Zak phase - the Berry phase acquired during an adiabatic motion of a particle across the Brillouin zone - which can be viewed as an invariant characterizing the topological properties of the band. This work establishes a new general approach for probing the topological structure of Bloch bands in optical lattices.