Atom-optically synthetic gauge fields for a noninteracting Bose gas
Yuqing Li, Jia-Hui Zhang, Yunfei Wang, Huiying Du, Jizhou Wu, Wenliang Liu, Feng Mei, Jie Ma, Liantuan Xiao, Suotang Jia
Abstract
Abstract Synthetic gauge fields in synthetic dimensions are now of great interest. This concept provides a convenient manner for exploring topological phases of matter. Here, we report on the first experimental realization of an atom-optically synthetic gauge field based on the synthetic momentum-state lattice of a Bose gas of 133 Cs atoms, where magnetically controlled Feshbach resonance is used to tune the interacting lattice into noninteracting regime. Specifically, we engineer a noninteracting one-dimensional lattice into a two-leg ladder with tunable synthetic gauge fields. We observe the flux-dependent populations of atoms and measure the gauge field-induced chiral currents in the two legs. We also show that an inhomogeneous gauge field could control the atomic transport in the ladder. Our results lay the groundwork for using a clean noninteracting synthetic momentum-state lattice to study the gauge field-induced topological physics.