Engineering topological chiral transport in a flat-band lattice of ultracold atoms

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates engineered topological chiral transport in a flat-band lattice of ultracold atoms, revealing topologically protected transport mechanisms useful for quantum device design.

Contribution

The study experimentally realizes and confirms a topologically protected chiral transport in a synthetic flat-band lattice with Floquet engineering.

Findings

Observation of biased local oscillations due to staggered flux and flat-band localization.

Experimental confirmation of state-dependent chiral transport under periodic flux modulation.

Topological protection of transport via Floquet band winding.

Abstract

The manipulation of particle transport in synthetic quantum matter is an active research frontier for its theoretical importance and potential applications. Here we experimentally demonstrate an engineered topological transport in a synthetic flat-band lattice of ultracold $^{87}$Rb atoms. We implement a quasi-one-dimensional rhombic chain with staggered flux in the momentum space of the atomic condensate and observe biased local oscillations that originate from the interplay of the staggered flux and flat-band localization under the mechanism of Aharonov-Bohm caging. Based on these features, we design and experimentally confirm a state-dependent chiral transport under the periodic modulation of the synthetic flux. We show that the phenomenon is topologically protected by the winding of the Floquet Bloch bands of a coarse-grained effective Hamiltonian. The observed chiral transport offers a strategy for efficient quantum device design where topological robustness is ensured by fast Floquet driving and flat-band localization.