We present experimental evidence of the successful closed-loop optimization of the dynamics of cold atoms in an optical lattice. We optimize the loading of an ultracold atomic gas minimizing the excitations in an array of one-dimensional tubes (3D-1D crossover) and we perform an optimal crossing of the quantum phase-transition from a Superfluid to a Mott-Insulator in a three-dimensional lattice. In both cases we enhance the experiment performances with respect to those obtained via adiabatic dynamics, effectively speeding up the process by more than a factor three while improving the quality of the desired transformation.
Atomic interferometry in optical lattices is a new trend of developing practical quantum gravimeter. Here, we propose a compact and portable gravimetry scheme with an ensemble of ultracold atoms in gravitationally tilted spin-dependent optical lattices. The fast, coherent separation and recombination of atoms can be realized via polarization-synthesized optical lattices. The input atomic wavepacket is coherently split into two parts by a spin-dependent shift and a subsequent $frac{pi}{2}$ pulse. Then the two parts are held for accumulating a relative phase related to the gravity. Lastly the two parts are recombined for interference by a $frac{pi}{2}$ pulse and a subsequent spin-dependent shift. The $frac{pi}{2}$ pulses not only preclude the spin-dependent energies in the accumulated phase, but also avoid the error sources such as dislocation of optical lattices in the holding process. In addition, we develop an analytical method for the sensitivity in multi-path interferometry.
We investigate the existence of the $macroscopic$ $quantum$ $phase$ in trapped ultracold quantum degenerate gases, such as Bose-Einstein condensate, in an asymmetrical two-dimensional magnetic lattice. We show the key to adiabatically control the tunneling in the new two-dimensional magnetic lattice by means of external magnetic bias fields. The macroscopic quantum phase signature is identified as a Rabi-like oscillation when solving the system of coupled time-dependent differential equations, described here by the Boson Josephson Junctions (BJJs). In solving the system of the BJJs we used an order parameter that includes both time-dependent variational parameters which are the fractional population at each lattice site and the phase difference. The BJJs solution presents a clear evidence for the macroscopic quantum coherence.
We present an effective and fast (few microseconds) procedure for transferring ultra-cold atoms from the ground state in a harmonic trap into the desired bands of an optical lattice. Our shortcut method is a designed pulse sequence where the time duration and the interval in each step are fully optimized in order to maximize robustness and fidelity of the final state with respect to the target state. The atoms can be prepared in a single band with even or odd parity, and superposition states of different bands can be prepared and manipulated. Furthermore, we extend this idea to the case of two-dimensional or three-dimensional optical lattices where the energies of excited states are degenerate. We experimentally demonstrate various examples and show very good agreement with the theoretical model. Efficient shortcut methods will find applications in the preparation of quantum systems, in quantum information processing, in precise measurement and as a starting point to investigate dynamics in excited bands.
We study the dynamics of ultracold atoms in tailored bichromatic optical lattices. By tuning the lattice parameters, one can readily engineer the band structure and realize a Dirac point, i.e. a true crossing of two Bloch bands. The dynamics in the vicinity of such a crossing is described by the one-dimensional Dirac equation, which is rigorously shown beyond the tight-binding approximation. Within this framework we analyze the effects of an external potential and demonstrate numerically that it is possible to demonstrate Klein tunneling with current experimental setups.
We present a novel approach to precisely synthesize arbitrary polarization states of light with a high modulation bandwidth. Our approach consists of superimposing two laser light fields with the same wavelength, but with opposite circular polarizations, where the phase and the amplitude of each light field are individually controlled. We find that the polarization-synthesized beam reaches a degree of polarization of 99.99%, which is mainly limited by static spatial variations of the polarization state over the beam profile. We also find that the depolarization caused by temporal fluctuations of the polarization state is about 2 orders of magnitude smaller. In a recent work, Robens et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 065302 (2017)] demonstrated an application of the polarization synthesizer to create two independently controllable optical lattices, which trap atoms depending on their internal spin state. We here use ultracold atoms in polarization-synthesized optical lattices to give an independent, in situ demonstration of the performance of the polarization synthesizer.