Atom-optically synthetic gauge fields for a noninteracting Bose gas

摘要

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.