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Chiral dynamics of ultracold atoms under a tunable SU(2) synthetic gauge field

Nature Physics volume 20, pages 1738–1743 (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Surface currents arise in superconductors under magnetic fields and are a key signature of the Meissner effect. Similarly, chiral dynamics have been observed in quantum simulators under synthetic Abelian gauge fields. These simulators offer flexible control, enabling the engineering of non-Abelian gauge fields, although their influence on chiral dynamics remains unclear. Here, we implement a synthetic SU(2) gauge field in a spinful one-dimensional ladder and investigate the resulting chiral dynamics by developing a Raman momentum-lattice technique. We confirm the non-Abelian nature of the synthetic potential by observing the non-Abelian Aharonov–Bohm effect on a single plaquette. Furthermore, we find that the chiral current along the two legs of the ladder is spin dependent and highly tunable through the gauge potential parameters. We experimentally map out different dynamic regimes of the chiral current, revealing the competition between overlaying flux ladders with different spin compositions. Our experiment demonstrates the impact of non-Abelian gauge fields on chiral dynamics and offers a viable approach to implementing exotic synthetic gauge fields using Raman momentum lattices.

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Fig. 1: Synthesis of the SU(2) gauge fields in the RML.
Fig. 2: Observing the non-Abelian AB effect.
Fig. 3: Spin-dependent chiral dynamics.
Fig. 4: Dynamic regimes of the chiral current.

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Data availability

Experimental data, any related experimental background information not mentioned in the text, and other findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the support from the National Key Research and Development Programme of China under Grant Nos. 2023YFA1406703 and 2022YFA1404203, The National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos. U21A20437, 12074337, 11974331, 12374479 and 12174339, Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province under Grant No. LR21A040002 and LR23A040003, Zhejiang Province Plan for Science and Technology Grant No. 2020C01019, the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities under Grant Nos. 2021FZZX001-02 and 226-2023-00131, the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation under Grant No. 2023M733122 and the Science Specialty Programme of Sichuan University under Grant No. 2020SCUNL210.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Qian Liang, Zhaoli Dong, Jian-Song Pan.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Physics, and Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Micro-Nano Quantum Chips and Quantum Control, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

    Qian Liang, Zhaoli Dong, Hongru Wang, Hang Li, Zhaoju Yang & Bo Yan

  2. State Key Laboratory for Extreme Photonics and Instrumentation, and College of Optical Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

    Qian Liang, Zhaoli Dong, Hongru Wang & Bo Yan

  3. College of Physics and Key Laboratory of High Energy Density Physics and Technology of Ministry of Education, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China

    Jian-Song Pan

  4. CAS Key Laboratory of Quantum Information, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China

    Wei Yi

  5. Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Quantum Network, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China

    Wei Yi

  6. CAS Center For Excellence in Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, Hefei, China

    Wei Yi

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Contributions

Q.L., Z.D., H.W. and H.L. performed the experiments and data analysis. J.P. and Q.L. performed the theoretical modelling and calculations. Z.Y., W.Y. and B.Y. initiated and supervised this project. All authors discussed the results and contributed to the preparation of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Zhaoju Yang, Wei Yi or Bo Yan.

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Liang, Q., Dong, Z., Pan, JS. et al. Chiral dynamics of ultracold atoms under a tunable SU(2) synthetic gauge field. Nat. Phys. 20, 1738–1743 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-024-02644-4

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