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Xiong-Jun Liu

Publications and source records attributed to Xiong-Jun Liu.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Topological spin-orbit-coupled fermions beyond rotating wave approximation

The realization of spin-orbit-coupled ultracold gases has driven a wide range of researches and is typically based on the rotating wave approximation (RWA). By neglecting the counter-rotating terms, RWA characterizes a single near-resonant spin-orbit (SO) coupling in a two-level system. Here, we propose and experimentally realize a new scheme for achieving a pair of two-dimensional (2D) SO couplings for ultracold fermions beyond RWA. This work not only realizes the first anomalous Floquet topological Fermi gas beyond RWA, but also significantly improves the lifetime of the 2D-SO-coupled Fermi gas. Based on pump-probe quench measurements, we observe a deterministic phase relation between two sets of SO couplings, which is characteristic for our beyond-RWA scheme and enables the two SO couplings to be simultaneously tuned to the optimum 2D configurations. We observe intriguing band topology by measuring two-ring band-inversion surfaces, quantitatively consistent with a Floquet topological Fermi gas in the regime of high Chern numbers. Our study can open an avenue to explore exotic SO physics and anomalous topological states based on long-lived SO-coupled ultracold fermions.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

Berry Curvature and Bulk-Boundary Correspondence from Transport Measurement for Photonic Chern Bands

Berry curvature is a fundamental element to characterize topological quantum physics, while a full measurement of Berry curvature in momentum space was not reported for topological states. Here we achieve two-dimensional Berry curvature reconstruction in a photonic quantum anomalous Hall system via Hall transport measurement of a momentum-resolved wave packet. Integrating measured Berry curvature over the two-dimensional Brillouin zone, we obtain Chern numbers corresponding to -1 and 0. Further, we identify bulk-boundary correspondence by measuring topology-linked chiral edge states at the boundary. The full topological characterization of photonic Chern bands from Berry curvature, Chern number, and edge transport measurements enables our photonic system to serve as a versatile platform for further in-depth study of novel topological physics.

quant-ph↗

Non-Abelian dynamical gauge field and topological superfluids in optical Raman lattice

We propose an experimental scheme to realize non-Abelian dynamical gauge field for ultracold fermions, which induces a novel pairing mechanism of topological superfluidity. The dynamical gauge fields arise from nontrivial interplay effect between the strong Zeeman splitting and Hubbard interaction in a two-dimensional (2D) optical Raman lattice. The spin-flip transitions are forbidden by the large Zeeman detuning, but are restored when the Zeeman splitting is compensated by Hubbard interaction. This scheme allows to generate a dynamical non-Abelian gauge field that leads to a Dirac type correlated 2D spin-orbit interaction depending on local state configurations. The topological superfluid from a novel pairing driven by 2D dynamical gauge fields is reached, with analytic and numerical results being obtained. Our work may open up a door to emulate non-Abelian dynamical gauge fields and correlated topological phases with experimental feasibility.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

Symmetric non-Hermitian skin effect with emergent nonlocal correspondence

The non-Hermitian skin effect (NHSE) refers to that an extensive number of eigenstates of a non-Hermitian system are localized in open boundaries. Here we predict a universal phenomenon that with local particle-hole(-like) symmetry (PHS) the skin modes must be equally distributed on different boundaries, manifesting a novel nonlocalization of the local PHS, which is unique to non-Hermitian systems. We develop a generic theory for the emergent nonlocal symmetry-protected NHSE by connecting the non-Hermitian system to an extended Hermitian Hamiltonian in a quadruplicate Hilbert space, which maps the skin modes to the topological zero modes and the PHS to an emergent nonlocal symmetry in the perspective of many body physics. The predicted NHSE is robust against perturbations. We propose optical Raman lattice models to observe the predicted phenomena in all physical dimensions, which are accessible with cold-atom experiments.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Exact new mobility edges between critical and localized states

The disorder systems host three types of fundamental quantum states, known as the extended, localized, and critical states, of which the critical states remain being much less explored. Here we propose a class of exactly solvable models which host a novel type of exact mobility edges (MEs) separating localized states from robust critical states, and propose experimental realization. Here the robustness refers to the stability against both single-particle perturbation and interactions in the few-body regime. The exactly solvable one-dimensional models are featured by quasiperiodic mosaic type of both hopping terms and on-site potentials. The analytic results enable us to unambiguously obtain the critical states which otherwise require arduous numerical verification including the careful finite size scalings. The critical states and new MEs are shown to be robust, illustrating a generic mechanism unveiled here that the critical states are protected by zeros of quasiperiodic hopping terms in the thermodynamic limit. Further, we propose a novel experimental scheme to realize the exactly solvable model and the new MEs in an incommensurate Rydberg Raman superarray. This work may pave a way to precisely explore the critical states and new ME physics with experimental feasibility.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

Determination of dynamical quantum phase transition for boson systems using the Loschmidt cumulants method

We study the dynamical quantum phase transition(DQPT) of the Bose-Hubbard model utilizing recently developed Loschmidt cumulants method. We determine the complex Loschmidt zeros of the Loschmidt amplitude analogous to the Lee-Yang zeros of the thermal partition function. We obtain the DQPT critical points through identifying the crossing points with the imaginary axis. The critical points show high accuracy when compared to those obtained using the matrix product states method. In addition, we show that how the critical points of DQPT can be determined by analyzing the energy fluctuation of the initial state, making it a valuable tool for future studies in this area. Finally, DQPT in the extended Bose-Hubbaed model is also investigated.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

Observation of 2D Mott insulator and $π$-superfluid quantum phase transition in shaking optical lattice

The Mott insulator and superfluid phase transition is one of the most prominent phenomena in ultracold atoms. In this work, we report the observation of a novel 2D quantum phase transition between Mott insulator and $π$ superfluid in a shaking optical lattice. In the deep optical lattice regime, the lowest $s$-band can be tuned to Mott phase, while the higher $p_{x,y}$ bands are itinerant for having larger bandwidth. Through a shaking technique coupling the $s$ orbital to $p_{x,y}$ orbital states, we experimentally observe the transition between the states of the $s$ and $p_{x,y}$ bands, leading to a quantum phase transition from 2D $s$-orbital Mott phase to the $p_{x,y}$-orbital superfluid which condensed at $(π,π)$ momentum.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

Deterministic topological quantum gates for Majorana qubits without ancillary modes

The realization of quantum gates in topological quantum computation still confronts significant challenges in both fundamental and practical aspects. Here, we propose a deterministic and fully topologically protected measurement-based scheme to realize the issue of implementing Clifford quantum gates on the Majorana qubits. Our scheme is based on rigorous proof that the single-qubit gate can be performed by leveraging the neighboring Majorana qubit but not disturbing its carried quantum information, eliminating the need for ancillary Majorana zero modes (MZMs) in topological quantum computing. Benefiting from the ancilla-free construction, we show the minimum measurement sequences with four steps to achieve two-qubit Clifford gates by constructing their geometric visualization. To avoid the uncertainty of the measurement-only strategy, we propose manipulating the MZMs in their parameter space to correct the undesired measurement outcomes while maintaining complete topological protection, as demonstrated in a concrete Majorana platform. Our scheme identifies the minimal operations of measurement-based topological and deterministic Clifford gates and offers an ancilla-free design of topological quantum computation.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Unified characterization for higher-order topological phase transitions

Higher-order topological phase transitions (HOTPTs) are associated with closing either the bulk energy gap (type-I) or boundary energy gap (type-II) without changing symmetry, and conventionally the both transitions are captured in real space and characterized separately. Here we propose a momentum-space topological characterization of the HOTPTs, which unifies the both types of topological transitions and enables a precise detection by quench dynamics. Our unified characterization is based on a novel correspondence between the mass domain walls on real-space boundaries and the higher-order band-inversion surfaces (BIS) which are characteristic interfaces in the momentum subspace. The topological transitions occur when momentum-space topological nodes, dubbed higher-order topological charges, cross the higher-order BISs after proper projection. Particularly, the bulk (boundary) gap closes when all (part of) topological charges cross the BISs, characterizing the type-I (type-II) HOTPTs. These distinct dynamical behaviours of higher-order topological charges can be feasibly measured from quench dynamics driven with control in experiments. Our work opens an avenue to characterize and detect the two types of HOTPTs within a unified framework, and shall advance the research in both theory and experiment.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Dynamical detection of mean-field topological phases in an interacting Chern insulator

Interactions generically have important effects on the topological quantum phases. For a quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) insulator, the presence of interactions can qualitatively change the topological phase diagram which, however, is typically hard to measure in the experiment. Here we propose a novel scheme based on quench dynamics to detect the mean-field topological phase diagram of an interacting Chern insulator described by QAH-Hubbard model, with nontrivial dynamical quantum physics being uncovered. We focus on the dynamical properties of the system at a weak to intermediate Hubbard interaction which mainly induces a ferromagnetic order under the mean-field level. Remarkably, three characteristic times $t_s$, $t_c$, and $t^*$ are found in the quench dynamics. The first two capture the emergence of dynamical self-consistent particle density and dynamical topological phase transition respectively, while the last one gives a linear scaling time on the topological phase boundaries. A more interesting result is that $t_s>t^*>t_c$ ($t^*<t_s<t_c$) occurs in repulsive (attractive) interaction and the Chern number is determined by any two characteristic time scales when the system is quenched from an initial nearly fully polarized state to the topologically nontrivial regimes, showing a dynamical way to determine equilibrium mean-field topological phase diagram via the time scales. Experimentally,the measurement of $t_s$ is challenging while $t_c$ and $t^*$ can be directly readout by measuring the spin polarizations of four Dirac points and the time-dependent particle density, respectively. Our work reveals the novel interacting effects on the topological phases and shall promote the experimental observation.

cond-mat.str-el↗

Tuning anomalous Floquet topological bands with ultracold atoms

The Floquet engineering opens the way to create new topological states without counterparts in static systems. Here, we report the experimental realization and characterization of new anomalous topological states with high-precision Floquet engineering for ultracold atoms trapped in a shaking optical Raman lattice. The Floquet band topology is manipulated by tuning the driving-induced band crossings referred to as band inversion surfaces (BISs), whose configurations fully characterize the topology of the underlying states. We uncover various exotic anomalous topological states by measuring the configurations of BISs which correspond to the bulk Floquet topology. In particular, we identify an unprecedented anomalous Floquet valley-Hall state that possesses anomalous helicallike edge modes protected by valleys and a chiral state with high Chern number.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

Unconventional Floquet topological phases from quantum engineering of band inversion surfaces

Floquet engineering provides a toolbox for the realization of novel quantum phases without static counterparts, while conventionally the realization may rely on the manipulation of complex temporal evolution. Here we propose a systematic and high-precision scheme to realize unconventional Floquet topological phases by engineering local band structures in particular momentum subspace called band inversion surfaces (BISs). This scheme is based on a new bulk-boundary correspondence that for a class of generic $d$-dimensional periodically driven systems, the local topological structure formed in each BIS uniquely determines the features of gapless boundary modes. By engineering the BIS configuration we demonstrate a highly efficient approach to realize, manipulate, and detect novel Floquet topological phases. In particular, we predict a two-dimensional (2D) anomalous Floquet valley-Hall phase which carries trivial global bulk topological invariants but features protected counter-propagating edge states in each quasienergy gap. The unconventional nature of this novel 2D phase is further illustrated by the examination of edge geometry dependence and its robustness to disorder scattering. Anomalous chiral topological phases with valley protection in higher dimension are also predicted and studied. Our systematic and highly feasible scheme opens a new route to realize and engineer unconventional Floquet topological phases for ultracold atoms and other quantum simulators.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Quantum phase with coexisting localized, extended, and critical zones

Conventionally a mobility edge (ME) marks a critical energy that separates two different transport zones where all states are extended and localized, respectively. Here we propose a novel quasiperiodic spin-orbit coupled lattice model with experimental feasibility to realize a fundamentally new quantum phase with three coexisting energy-dependent zones, i.e., the extended, critical and localized zones, and uncover the underlying generic mechanism for the occurrence of the new quantum phase. Accordingly, this phase exhibits new types of MEs which separate the extended states from critical ones, and the localized states from critical ones, respectively. We introduce the diagnostic quantities to characterize and distinguish the different zones, and show that the predicted phase can be detected by measuring the fractal dimension or conductivities. The experimental realization is also proposed and studied. This work extends the concept of ME and enriches the quantum phases in disordered systems, which sheds light on searching for new localization and critical phenomena with novel transport and thermoelectric effects.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

Topological spin texture of chiral edge states in photonic two-dimensional quantum walks

Topological insulators host topology-linked boundary states, whose spin and charge degrees of freedom could be exploited to design topological devices with enhanced functionality. We experimentally observe that dissipationless chiral edge states in a spin-orbit coupled anomalous Floquet topological phase exhibit topological spin texture on boundaries, realized via a two-dimensional quantum walk. Our experiment shows that, for a walker traveling around a closed loop along the boundary in real space, its spin evolves and winds through a great circle on the Bloch sphere, which implies that edge-spin texture has nontrivial winding. This winding is linked to the bulk Dirac Hamiltonian around the energy-gap opening point. Our experiment confirms that two-dimensional anomalous Floquet topological systems exhibit topological spin texture on the boundary, which could inspire novel topology-based spintronic phenomena and devices.

quant-ph↗

Realization of Qi-Wu-Zhang model in spin-orbit-coupled ultracold fermions

Based on the optical Raman lattice technique, we experimentally realize the Qi-Wu-Zhang model for quantum anomalous Hall phase in ultracold fermions with two-dimensional (2D) spin-orbit (SO) coupling. We develop a novel protocol of pump-probe quench measurement to probe, with minimal heating, the resonant spin flipping on particular quasi-momentum subspace called band-inversion surfaces. With this protocol we demonstrate the first Dirac-type 2D SO coupling in a fermionic system, and detect non-trivial band topology by observing the change of band-inversion surfaces as the two-photon detuning varies. The non-trivial band topology is also observed by slowly loading the atoms into optical Raman lattices and measuring the spin textures. Our results show solid evidence for the realization of the minimal SO-coupled quantum anomalous Hall model, which can provide a feasible platform to investigate novel topological physics including the correlation effects with SO-coupled ultracold fermions.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

Experimental quantum simulation of non-Hermitian dynamical topological states using stochastic Schrödinger equation

Noise is ubiquitous in real quantum systems, leading to non-Hermitian quantum dynamics, and may affect the fundamental states of matter. Here we report in experiment a quantum simulation of the two-dimensional non-Hermitian quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) model using the nuclear magnetic resonance processor. Unlike the usual experiments using auxiliary qubits, we develop a stochastic average approach based on the stochastic Schrödinger equation to realize the non-Hermitian dissipative quantum dynamics, which has advantages in saving the quantum simulation sources and simplifies implementation of quantum gates. We demonstrate the stability of dynamical topology against weak noise, and observe two types of dynamical topological transitions driven by strong noise. Moreover, a region that the emergent topology is always robust regardless of the noise strength is observed. Our work shows a feasible quantum simulation approach for dissipative quantum dynamics with stochastic Schrödinger equation and opens a route to investigate non-Hermitian dynamical topological physics.

quant-ph↗

Quantum Hall states for Rydberg atoms with laser-assisted dipole-dipole interactions

Rydberg atoms with dipole-dipole interactions provide intriguing platforms to explore exotic quantum many-body physics. Here we propose a novel scheme with laser-assisted dipole-dipole interactions to realize synthetic magnetic field for Rydberg atoms in a two-dimensional array configuration, which gives rise to the exotic bosonic topological states. In the presence of an external effective Zeeman splitting gradient, the dipole-dipole interaction between neighboring Rydberg atoms along the gradient direction is suppressed, but can be assisted when Raman lights are applied to compensate the energy difference. With this scheme we generate a controllable uniform magnetic field for the complex spin-exchange coupling model, which can be mapped to hard core bosons coupling to an external synthetic magnetic field. The highly tunable flat Chern bands of the hard core bosons are then obtained and moreover, the bosonic fractional quantum Hall states can be achieved with experimental feasibility. This work opens an avenue for the realization of the highly-sought-after bosonic topological orders using Rydberg atoms.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Two-particle Berry phase mechanism for Dirac and Majorana Kramers pairs of corner modes

We uncover a novel two-particle Berry phase mechanism to realize exotic corner modes in second-order topological insulators (TIs) and topological superconductors (TSCs) with time-reversal symmetry. We show that the nontrivial pseudospin textures of edge states in two different types of two-dimensional TIs give rise to the novel two-particle geometric phases in the particle-hole and particle-particle channels, respectively, for which the edge mass domain walls or intrinsic $π$-junctions emerge across corners when an external magnetic field or $s$-wave superconductivity is considered, hosting Dirac or Majorana corner modes. Remarkably, with this mechanism we predict the Majorana Kramers pair of corner modes by directly coupling the edge of a type-II time-reversal invariant TI to a uniform $s$-wave SC, in sharp contrast to the previous proposals which rely on unconventional SC pairing or complex setting for fine-tuned SC $π$-junction. We find Au/GaAs(111) to be a realistic material candidate for realizing such Majorana Kramers pair of corner modes.

cond-mat.supr-con↗