Weyl points and topological nodal superfluids in a face-centered-cubic optical lattice

• Main Authors: Lang, Li-Jun, Zhang, Shao-Liang, Law, K. T., Zhou, Qi
• Other Authors: School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: Ultracold Gases; Weyl Semimetal; DRNTU::Science::Physics
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/81397; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/46615
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

We point out that a face-centered-cubic (fcc) optical lattice, which can be realized by a simple scheme using three lasers, provides one a highly controllable platform for creating Weyl points and topological nodal superfluids in ultracold atoms. In noninteracting systems, Weyl points automatically arise in the Floquet band structure when shaking such fcc lattices, and sophisticated design of the tunneling is not required. More interestingly, in the presence of attractive interaction between two hyperfine spin states, which experience the same shaken fcc lattice, a three-dimensional topological nodal superfluid emerges, and Weyl points show up as the gapless points in the quasiparticle spectrum. One could either create a double Weyl point of charge 2, or split it into two Weyl points of charge 1, which can be moved in the momentum space by tuning the interactions. Correspondingly, the Fermi arcs at the surface may be linked with each other or separated as individual ones.