We investigate the dynamics of a wave packet in a parity-breaking one-dimensional periodic potential slowly varied in time and perturbed by a linear potential. Parity is broken by considering an asymmetric double well per unit cell. By comparing the prediction of the semiclassical dynamics with the full Schrödinger solution, we show that Bloch oscillations are strongly affected by anomalous velocity corrections related to Berry’s phase. We characterize how these effects depend on the degree of parity breaking of the potential and on the modulation parameters. We also discuss how to measure the effects of the anomalous velocity in current experiments with noninteracting Bose-Einstein condensates in bichromatic optical lattices, under the effect of gravity.

• Received 10 November 2010

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.83.013619