2016/02/09 by Sayonee Ray, Ray, Sayonee, Kallol Sen +3
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Photonic Crystals and Applications #Photonic and Optical Devices #Semiconductor Lasers and Optical Devices #cond-mat.mes-hall #cond-mat.quant-gas
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1602.02926
5 pages, 4 figures, added some references and made minor changes
arxiv created 2016/08/02 · arxiv updated 2016/08/03
Despite the realizations of spin-orbit (SO) coupling and synthetic gauge fields in optical lattices, the associated time-reversal symmetry breaking, and 1D nature of the observed SO coupling pose challenges to obtain intrinsic Z2 topological insulator. We propose here a model optical device for engineering intrinsic Z2 topological insulator which can be easily set up with the existing tools. The device is made of a periodic lattice of quantum mechanically connected atomic wires (dubbed SO wires) in which the laser generated SO coupling (α\bf k, with \bf k being the momentum) is reversed in every alternating wires as ±α\bf k. The associated small Zeeman terms are also automatically reversed in any two adjacent SO wires, which allow to effectively restore the global time-reversal (TR) symmetry. Therefore, the two SO wires serve as the TR partner to each other which is an important ingredient for Z2 topological insulators according to the Kane-Mele model. These properties ensure a non-trivial Z2 invariant topological insulator phase with protected edge states. We also discuss that a non-local current measurement can be used to detect the chiral edge states.