Helical Floquet Channels in 1D Lattices

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the emergence of dispersionless, spin-momentum locked channels in a 1D periodically driven lattice, challenging static system constraints and proposing an experimentally feasible setup with ultracold atoms.

Contribution

It introduces a novel mechanism for creating Floquet channels with perfect spin-momentum locking in 1D lattices without adiabatic assumptions.

Findings

Dispersionless channels with spin-momentum locking are possible in driven 1D systems.

Such channels are forbidden in static 1D systems due to fermion doubling.

The proposed setup is experimentally feasible with current ultracold atom technology.

Abstract

We show how dispersionless channels exhibiting perfect spin-momentum locking can arise in a 1D lattice model. While such spectra are forbidden by fermion doubling in static 1D systems, here we demonstrate their appearance in the stroboscopic dynamics of a periodically driven system. Remarkably, this phenomenon does not rely on any adiabatic assumptions, in contrast to the well known Thouless pump and related models of adiabatic spin pumps. The proposed setup is shown to be experimentally feasible with state of the art techniques used to control ultracold alkaline earth atoms in optical lattices.