title: Chern Kondo Insulator in an Optical Lattice.
abstract: We propose to realize and observe Chern Kondo insulators in an optical superlattice with laser-assisted s and p orbital hybridization and a synthetic gauge field, which can be engineered based on the recent cold atom experiments. Considering a double-well square optical lattice, the localized s orbitals are decoupled from itinerant p bands and are driven into a Mott insulator due to the strong Hubbard interaction. Raman laser beams are then applied to induce tunnelings between s and p orbitals, and generate a staggered flux simultaneously. Because of the strong Hubbard interaction of s orbital states, we predict the existence of a critical Raman laser-assisted coupling, beyond which the Kondo screening is achieved, and then a fully gapped Chern Kondo phase emerges, with the topology characterized by integer Chern numbers. Being a strongly correlated topological state, the Chern Kondo phase is different from the single-particle quantum anomalous Hall state, and can be identified by measuring the band topology and double occupancy of s orbitals. The experimental realization and detection of the predicted Chern Kondo insulator are also proposed.
authors.affiliation: International Center for Quantum Materials and School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.|Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, Beijing 100871, China.
authors.forename: Hua
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: International Center for Quantum Materials and School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.|Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, Beijing 100871, China.
authors.forename: Xiong-Jun
authors.initials: XJ
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: International Center for Quantum Materials and School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.|Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, Beijing 100871, China.
authors.forename: X C
authors.initials: XC
authors.lastname: Xie