Simulation of chiral motion of excitation within the ground-state manifolds of neutral atoms

Abstract

Laser-induced gauge fields in neutral atoms serve as a means of mimicking the effects of a magnetic field, providing researchers with a platform to explore behaviors analogous to those observed in condensed matter systems under real magnetic fields. Here, we propose a method to generate chiral motion in atomic excitations within the neutral atomic ground-state manifolds. This is achieved through the application of polychromatic driving fields coupled to the ground–Rydberg transition, along with unconventional Rydberg pumping. The scheme offers the advantage of arbitrary adjustment of the effective magnetic flux by setting the relative phases between different external laser fields. In addition, the effective interaction strength between the atomic ground states can be maintained at 10 kHz, surpassing the capabilities of the previous approach utilizing Floquet modulation. Notably, the proposed method can be readily extended to implement a hexagonal neutral atom lattice, serving as the fundamental unit in realizing the Haldane model.