title: Tomography of band insulators from quench dynamics.
abstract: We propose a simple scheme for tomography of band-insulating states in one- and two-dimensional optical lattices with two sublattice states. In particular, the scheme maps out the Berry curvature in the entire Brillouin zone and extracts topological invariants such as the Chern number. The measurement relies on observing--via time-of-flight imaging--the time evolution of the momentum distribution following a sudden quench in the band structure. We consider two examples of experimental relevance: the Harper model with π flux and the Haldane model on a honeycomb lattice. Moreover, we illustrate the performance of the scheme in the presence of a parabolic trap, noise, and finite measurement resolution.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Quantenoptik und Quanteninformation, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Technikerstraße 21A, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria and Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Innsbruck, Technikerstraße 25, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: Philipp
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hauke
authors.affiliation: ICFO-Institut de Ciències Fotòniques, Parc Mediterrani de la Tecnologia, E-08860 Castelldefels, Spain and ICREA-Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats, Lluis Companys 23, E-08010 Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Maciej
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lewenstein
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck-Institut für Physik komplexer Systeme, Nöthnitzer Straße 38, D-01187 Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: André
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Eckardt