Realistic time-reversal invariant topological insulators with neutral atoms

Abstract

© 2010 The American Physical Society. N. G. thanks the F.R.S-F.N.R.S. I. S. and P. N. are supported by ONR N00014-09-1-1025A and 70NANB7H6138, Am 001 by NIST. A. B. and M.-A. M.- D. thank FIS2009-10061, CAM QUITEMAD, FET-7 PICC, GICC-910758, and FPU. M. L. thanks FIS2008- 00784, QOIT, NAMEQUAM, QUAGATUA, and the Humboldt Foundation. I. B. S. is supported by the ARO with funds from the DARPA OLE Program, and the NSF through the PFC at JQI.We lay out an experiment to realize time-reversal invariant topological insulators in alkali atomic gases. We introduce an original method to synthesize a gauge field in the near field of an atom chip, which effectively mimics the effects of spin-orbit coupling and produces quantum spin-Hall states.We also propose a feasible scheme to engineer sharp boundaries where the hallmark edge states are localized. Our multiband system has a large parameter space exhibiting a variety of quantum phase transitions between topological and normal insulating phases. Because of their remarkable versatility, cold-atom systems are ideally suited to realize topological states of matter and drive the development of topological quantum computing.Unión Europea. FP7Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN)Comunidad de MadridUniversidad Complutense de Madrid/Banco de SantanderONRNISTFPUHumboldt FoundationARONSFDepto. de Física TeóricaFac. de Ciencias FísicasTRUEpu