Topological optical Raman superlattices

Abstract

Topological phases of ultracold atoms recently have been intensively studied in both optical superlattices and Raman lattices. However, the topological features induced by the interplay between such two lattices remain largely unexplored. Here we present an optical Raman superlattice system that incorporates an optical superlattice and a Raman superlattice. The Raman superlattice presented here supports tunable dimerized spin-orbit couplings and staggered on-site spin flips. We find that such a system respects a spin-rotation symmetry and has much richer topological properties. Specifically, we show that various topological phases could emerge in the optical Raman superlattice, such as four different chiral topological insulator phases and two different quantum spin Hall insulator phases, identified by spin winding and spin Chern numbers, respectively. We also demonstrate that the spin-dependent topological invariants could be directly measured by quench dynamics.