2011/12/12 by Monika Aidelsburger, M. Atala, Sylvain Nascimbène +3 · 17 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Strong Light-Matter Interactions #Quantum, superfluid, helium dynamics
paper · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.107.255301
openalex publication_date 2011/12/12 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
We use Raman-assisted tunneling in an optical superlattice to generate large tunable effective magnetic fields for ultracold atoms. When hopping in the lattice, the accumulated phase shift by an atom is equivalent to the Aharonov-Bohm phase of a charged particle exposed to a staggered magnetic field of large magnitude, on the order of 1 flux quantum per plaquette. We study the ground state of this system and observe that the frustration induced by the magnetic field can lead to a degenerate ground state for noninteracting particles. We provide a measurement of the local phase acquired from Raman-induced tunneling, demonstrating time-reversal symmetry breaking of the underlying Hamiltonian. Furthermore, the quantum cyclotron orbit of single atoms in the lattice exposed to the magnetic field is directly revealed.