Spin-twisted Optical Lattices: Tunable Flat Bands and Larkin-Ovchinnikov Superfluids (2008.01351v3)

Abstract: Moir\'{e} superlattices in twisted bilayer graphene and transition-metal dichalcogenides have emerged as a powerful tool for engineering novel band structures and quantum phases of two-dimensional quantum materials. Here we investigate Moir\'{e} physics emerging from twisting two independent hexagonal optical lattices of atomic (pseudo-)spin states (instead of bilayers), which exhibits remarkably different physics from twisted bilayer graphene. We employ a momentum-space tight-binding calculation that includes all range real-space tunnelings, and show that all twist angles $\theta \lesssim 6^{\circ }$ can become magic that support gapped flat bands. Due to greatly enhanced density of states near the flat bands, the system can be driven to superfluid by weak attractive interaction. Strikingly, the superfluid phase corresponds to a Larkin-Ovchinnikov state with finite momentum pairing, resulting from the interplay between flat bands and inter-spin interactions in the unique single-layer spin-twisted lattice. Our work may pave the way for exploring novel quantum phases and twistronics in cold atomic systems.