Visualizing edge states with an atomic Bose gas in the quantum Hall regime

TL;DR

This study visualizes edge and bulk states of atomic Bose-Einstein condensates in a magnetic lattice with high spatial resolution, revealing phenomena analogous to electronic quantum Hall effects and enabling future quantum simulations.

Contribution

We engineered a magnetic lattice with effective flux, imaging edge and bulk states at single-site resolution, and observed phenomena analogous to electronic quantum Hall effects in cold atoms.

Findings

Imaged localized edge and bulk states with single-site resolution.

Observed skipping orbits and dynamical Hall effect in atomic system.

Demonstrated minimal heating technique suitable for future spectroscopic studies.

Abstract

We engineered a two-dimensional magnetic lattice in an elongated strip geometry, with effective per-plaquette flux ~4/3 times the flux quanta. We imaged the localized edge and bulk states of atomic Bose-Einstein condensates in this strip, with single lattice-site resolution along the narrow direction. Further, we observed both the skipping orbits of excited atoms traveling down our system's edges, analogues to edge magnetoplasmons in 2-D electron systems, and a dynamical Hall effect for bulk excitations. Our lattice's long direction consisted of the sites of an optical lattice and its narrow direction consisted of the internal atomic spin states. Our technique has minimal heating, a feature that will be important for spectroscopic measurements of the Hofstadter butterfly and realizations of Laughlin's charge pump.