Gregor Jotzu and collaborators realized an artificial Haldane model in 2014. They loaded spin-polarized potassium-40 fermions into a laser-made honeycomb lattice. Piezoelectric mirrors shook the optical lattice along two axes; their relative phase controlled time-reversal symmetry breaking. Optical phase control adjusted the sublattice offset.[ref]
A magnetic field gradient drove Bloch oscillations. Band mapping measured interband transfer to locate valley-gap closures. Opposite-force drift measurements distinguished cancelling from reinforcing Berry curvature contributions; reversing shaking handedness reversed the drift. Interband transfer and harmonic confinement affected this readout, including drift beyond ideal transition lines. This neutral-atom Floquet Hamiltonian realization did not measure electrical sheet conductivity. Magnetic fields were used for preparation and forcing.[ref]
Daniel Greif Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-11-05
Daniel Greif coauthored the atomic realization of the Haldane model. The experiment used driven fermions in an optical honeycomb lattice to produce topologically distinct energy bands.
Applying a constant force produced transverse drift related to Berry curvature. This linked the geometry of a quantum band to measured atomic motion, complementing the direct measurement of the energy gap.[ref]
Gregor Jotzu Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-11-05
An experimental condensed matter physicist who coauthored a realization of the Haldane model in a driven optical honeycomb lattice. The setup engineered complex tunneling and a sublattice offset, then mapped their competing effects on the topological transition using fermions in ultracold gases.[ref]
Martin Lebrat Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-11-05
Martin Lebrat coauthored a controlled realization of the Haldane model with ultracold gases. Periodic lattice motion and an adjustable offset between neighboring sites independently controlled two symmetry-breaking effects.
The team located the topological transition by finding where the energy gap closed at a single Dirac point. This made the boundary between distinct quantum phases an experimentally measured relation between adjustable parameters.[ref]
Michael Messer Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-11-05
An experimental atomic physicist who coauthored a realization of the Haldane model with ultracold gases. Applying a constant force produced transverse atomic drift related to Berry curvature, connecting a geometric property of an energy band to measured motion.[ref]
Rémi Desbuquois Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-11-05
An experimental atomic physicist who coauthored an optical-lattice implementation of the Haldane model. The experiment controlled two competing symmetry-breaking terms and measured the boundary between topologically distinct regimes, turning a model's phase diagram into an experimentally adjustable system.[ref]
Thomas Uehlinger Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-11-05
An experimental atomic physicist who coauthored a cold-atom realization of the Haldane model. Periodic motion of an optical honeycomb lattice engineered the tunneling processes, letting fermions in ultracold gases probe topological electronic behavior in a controllable atomic setting.[ref]
Tilman Esslinger Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-11-05
Tilman Esslinger helped realize the Haldane model using ultracold gases in a driven optical honeycomb lattice. Circular motion of the lattice engineered complex tunneling amplitudes, while a site-energy offset supplied a competing symmetry-breaking control.
The experiment tuned between topologically distinct regimes and probed their energy-band structure. It converted a theoretical electronic model into an adjustable atomic system.[ref]
Figure 1.
Portrait of Tilman Esslinger
. ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Bildarchiv / Fotograf: Hostettler, Heidi / Portr_19735 / CC BY-SA 4.0; photograph dated 4 September 2019. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International., via Wikimedia Commons. Source.