Chern Kondo Insulator in an Optical Lattice

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We propose to realize and observe Chern Kondo insulators in an optical superlattice with laser-assisted s and p orbital hybridization and synthetic gauge field, which can be engineered based on the recent cold atom experiments. Considering a double-well square optical lattice, the localized s orbitals are decoupled from itinerant p bands and are driven into a Mott insulator due to strong Hubbard interaction. Raman laser beams are then applied to induce tunnelings between s and p orbitals, and generate a staggered flux simultaneously. Due to the strong Hubbard interaction of s orbital states, we predict the existence of a critical Raman laser-assisted coupling, beyond which the Kondo screening is achieved and then a fully gapped Chern Kondo phase emerges, with the topology characterized by integer Chern numbers. Being a strongly correlated topological state, the Chern Kondo phase is different from the single-particle quantum anomalous Hall state, and can be identified by measuring the band topology and double occupancy of s orbitals. The experimental realization and detection of the predicted Chern Kondo insulator are also proposed.