Seeing topological edge and bulk currents in time-of-flight images

Abstract

Here we provide a general methodology to directly measure the topological currents emerging in the optical lattice implementation of the Haldane model. Alongside the edge currents supported by gapless edge states, transverse currents can emerge in the bulk of the system whenever the local potential is varied in space, even if it does not cause a phase transition. In optical lattice implementations the overall harmonic potential that traps the atoms provides the boundaries of the topological phase that supports the edge currents, as well as providing the potential gradient across the topological phase that gives rise to the bulk current. Both the edge and bulk currents are resilient to several experimental parameters such as trapping potential, temperature and disorder. We propose to investigate the properties of these currents directly from time-of-flight images with both short-time and long-time expansions.