An Aharonov-Bohm interferometer for determining Bloch band topology

Abstract

The geometric structure of an energy band in a solid is fundamental for a wide range of many-body phenomena in condensed matter and is uniquely characterized by the distribution of Berry curvature over the Brillouin zone. In analogy to an Aharonov-Bohm interferometer that measures the magnetic flux penetrating a given area in real space, we realize an atomic interferometer to measure Berry flux in momentum space. We demonstrate the interferometer for a graphene-type hexagonal lattice, where it has allowed us to directly detect the singular $\pi$ Berry flux localized at each Dirac point. We show that the interferometer enables one to determine the distribution of Berry curvature with high momentum resolution. Our work forms the basis for a general framework to fully characterize topological band structures and can also facilitate holonomic quantum computing through controlled exploitation of the geometry of Hilbert space.