Floquet engineering of optical lattices with spatial features and periodicity below the diffraction limit

Abstract

Floquet engineering or coherent time periodic driving of quantum systems has been successfully used to synthesize Hamiltonians with novel properties. In ultracold atomic systems, this has led to experimental realizations of artificial gauge fields, topological band structures, and observation of dynamical localization, to name just a few. Here we present a Floquet-based framework to stroboscopically engineer Hamiltonians with spatial features and periodicity below the diffraction limit of light used to create them by time-averaging over various configurations of a 1D optical Kronig-Penney (KP) lattice. The KP potential is a lattice of narrow subwavelength barriers spaced by half the optical wavelength ($λ/2$) and arises from the non-linear optical response of the atomic dark state. Stroboscopic control over the strength and position of this lattice requires time-dependent adiabatic manipulation of the dark state spin composition. We investigate adiabaticity requirements and shape our time-dependent light fields to respect the requirements. We apply this framework to show that a $λ/4$-spaced lattice can be synthesized using realistic experimental parameters as an example, discuss mechanisms that limit lifetimes in these lattices, explore candidate systems and their limitations, and treat adiabatic loading into the ground band of these lattices.