Spin–orbit-coupled fermions in an optical lattice clock

Abstract

Engineered spin–orbit coupling (SOC) in cold-atom systems can enable the study of new synthetic materials and complex condensed matter phenomena. However, spontaneous emission in alkali-atom spin–orbit-coupled systems is hindered by heating, limiting the observation of many-body effects and motivating research into potential alternatives. Here we demonstrate that spin–orbit-coupled fermions can be engineered to occur naturally in a one-dimensional optical lattice clock. In contrast to previous SOC experiments, here the SOC is both generated and probed using a direct ultra-narrow optical clock transition between two electronic orbital states in 87Sr atoms. We use clock spectroscopy to prepare lattice band populations, internal electronic states and quasi-momenta, and to produce spin–orbit-coupled dynamics. The exceptionally long lifetime of the excited clock state (160 seconds) eliminates decoherence and atom loss from spontaneous emission at all relevant experimental timescales, allowing subsequent momentum- and spin-resolved in situ probing of the SOC band structure and eigenstates. We use these capabilities to study Bloch oscillations, spin–momentum locking and Van Hove singularities in the transition density of states. Our results lay the groundwork for using fermionic optical lattice clocks to probe new phases of matter.