Self-oscillating pump in a topological dissipative atom–cavity system

Davide Dreon, Alexander Baumgärtner, Xiangliang Li, Simon Hertlein, Tilman Esslinger () and Tobias Donner
Additional contact information
Davide Dreon: Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich
Alexander Baumgärtner: Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich
Xiangliang Li: Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich
Simon Hertlein: Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich
Tilman Esslinger: Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich
Tobias Donner: Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich

Nature, 2022, vol. 608, issue 7923, 494-498

Abstract: Abstract Pumps are transport mechanisms in which direct currents result from a cyclic evolution of the potential1,2. As Thouless showed, the pumping process can have topological origins, when considering the motion of quantum particles in spatially and temporally periodic potentials3. However, the periodic evolution that drives these pumps has always been assumed to be imparted from outside, as has been the case in the experimental systems studied so far4–12. Here we report on an emergent mechanism for pumping in a quantum gas coupled to an optical resonator, where we observe a particle current without applying a periodic drive. The pumping potential experienced by the atoms is formed by the self-consistent cavity field interfering with the static laser field driving the atoms. Owing to dissipation, the cavity field evolves between its two quadratures13, each corresponding to a different centrosymmetric crystal configuration14. This self-oscillation results in a time-periodic potential analogous to that describing the transport of electrons in topological tight-binding models, such as the paradigmatic Rice–Mele pump15. In the experiment, we directly follow the evolution by measuring the phase winding of the cavity field with respect to the driving field and observing the atomic motion in situ. The observed mechanism combines the dynamics of topological and open systems, and features characteristics of continuous dissipative time crystals.

Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04970-0 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:608:y:2022:i:7923:d:10.1038_s41586-022-04970-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04970-0

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().