Realization of topological Thouless pumping in a synthetic Rydberg dimension

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates topological quantum pumping in a synthetic dimension using Rydberg states of cesium atoms, achieving high efficiency even with non-adiabatic conditions, advancing quantum simulation capabilities.

Contribution

It experimentally realizes Thouless topological pumping in a synthetic dimension with Rydberg atoms, showing high efficiency under realistic conditions.

Findings

Achieved up to 90% pumping efficiency in the topological regime.

Demonstrated robustness of pumping despite wave-packet spread.

Implemented time-dependent control of Rydberg state couplings.

Abstract

The simulation of synthetic dimensions by manipulating internal states of atoms and molecules has opened the door to investigate regimes outside those of more traditional quantum many-body platforms. Highly excited Rydberg states of atoms are a particularly promising platform to engineer Hamiltonians in such synthetic dimensions due to their large number of addressable states and the readily available technologies for manipulating their couplings and for detecting them. In this letter, we demonstrate the realization of topological quantum pumping in synthetic dimensions by engineering a one-dimensional Rice-Mele chain from the Rydberg states of cesium atoms, and manipulating their couplings in a time-dependent fashion through radio-frequency fields. We implement Thouless protocols for topological pumping and investigate the efficiency for pumping an effective quantum particle as a function of the period of pumping and other parameters while allowing for rates of change that are not necessarily adiabatic. We demonstrate that optimal pumping efficiencies of up to 90% can be achieved when the pump is operated in the topological Thouless regime, even when the pumping is accompanied by the wave-packet spread that arises from the energy dispersion of the particle along the synthetic dimension.