Helical Floquet Channels in 1D Lattices

Abstract: We show how dispersionless channels exhibiting perfect spin-momentum locking can arise in a 1D lattice model. While such spectra are forbidden by fermion doubling in static 1D systems, here we demonstrate their appearance in the stroboscopic dynamics of a periodically driven system. Remarkably, this phenomenon does not rely on any adiabatic assumptions, in contrast to the well known Thouless pump and related models of adiabatic spin pumps. The proposed setup is shown to be experimentally feasible with state of the art techniques used to control ultracold alkaline earth atoms in optical lattices.