Project B2:
Ultracold atoms in non-standard optical lattices (2005-2007)
Summary
During the last few years the physics of ultracold atomic gases in optical lattices has attracted a major interest, constituting a bridge between atomic physics, quantum optics and condensed-matter physics. The research on this topic has been mainly focused on regular square or cubic lattices, which provide a perfectly periodic potential, with neither defects nor phonons. However, the experimental developments on the manipulation of optical potentials, and subsequent loading of cold atoms on them, currently allow for other lattice geometries, engineering of interactions and tunnelling rates, and the selective introduction of disorder. All this very interesting possibilities, just barely explored up to now, promise a very rich physics, both in the weakly- and strongly-correlated regimes. It is the aim of this project to theoretically analyze the generation, manipulation and control of nonstandard lattices, the properties shown by ultracold atoms (both bosonic and fermionic) in these novel potentials, and the possibilities for engineering and probing of quantum phase transitions, and for finding new states of matter. We shall concentrate our efforts mainly in three different areas: non-square lattices, disordered lattices, and manipulation of hopping rates.
Project leaders
Prof. Dr. Luis Santos, Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Hannover
Refs & Publications
S. Sinha and L. Santos"Cold Dipolar Gases in Quasi-One-Dimensional Geometries"
Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 140406 (2007)
A. Argüelles and L. Santos
"Mott-insulator phases of nonlocally coupled one-dimensional dipolar Bose gases"
Phys. Rev. A 75, 053613 (2007)
D. Gangardt, P. Pedri, L. Santos, and G. V. Shlyapnikov
"Mott insulator phase of one-dimensional atomic gases in a two-dimensional optical lattice"
Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 040403 (2006)
H. Gimperlein, S. Wessel, J. Schmiedmayer, and L. Santos
"Random on-site interactions versus random potential in ultra cold atoms in optical lattices"
Appl. Phys. B 82, 217 (2006)
B. Damski, H. Fehrmann, H.-U. Everts, M. Baranov, L. Santos, and M. Lewenstein
"Quantum gases in trimerized kagomé lattices"
Phys. Rev. A 72, 053612 (2005)
H. Gimperlein, S. Wessel, J. Schmiedmayer, and L. Santos
"Ultracold atoms in optical lattices with random on-site interactions"
Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 170401 (2005)
T. Schulte, S. Drenkelforth, J. Kruse, W. Ertmer, J. J. Arlt, A. Kantian, L. Sanchez-Palencia, L. Santos, A. Sanpera, K. Sacha, P. Zoller, M. Lewenstein, and J. Zakrzewski
"Cold atomic gases in optical lattices with disorder"
Acta Phys. Pol. A 109, 89 (2006)