No Arabic abstract
The phenomenon of photonic band gaps in one-dimensional optical lattices is reviewed using a microscopic approach. Formally equivalent to the transfer matrix approach in the thermodynamic limit, a microscopic model is required to study finite-size effects, such as deviations from the Bragg condition. Microscopic models describing both scalar and vectorial light are proposed, as well as for two- and three-level atoms. Several analytical results are compared to experimental data, showing a good agreement.
We present, theoretically and experimentally, amorphous photonic lattices exhibiting a band-gap yet completely lacking Bragg diffraction: 2D waveguides distributed randomly according to a liquid-like model responsible for the absence of Bragg peaks as opposed to ordered lattices containing disorder, which always exhibit Bragg peaks. In amorphous lattices the bands are comprised of localized states, but we find that defect states residing in the gap are more localized than the Anderson localization length. Finally, we show how the concept of effective mass carries over to amorphous lattices.
We experimentally realize Rydberg excitations in Bose-Einstein condensates of rubidium atoms loaded into quasi one-dimensional traps and in optical lattices. Our results for condensates expanded to different sizes in the one-dimensional trap agree well with the intuitive picture of a chain of Rydberg excitations. We also find that the Rydberg excitations in the optical lattice do not destroy the phase coherence of the condensate, and our results in that system agree with the picture of localized collective Rydberg excitations including nearest-neighbour blockade.
We present here a detailed study of the behaviour of a three dimensional Brownian motor based on cold atoms in a double optical lattice [P. Sjolund et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 190602 (2006)]. This includes both experiments and numerical simulations of a Brownian particle. The potentials used are spatially and temporally symmetric, but combined spatiotemporal symmetry is broken by phase shifts and asymmetric transfer rates between potentials. The diffusion of atoms in the optical lattices is rectified and controlled both in direction and speed along three dimensions. We explore a large range of experimental parameters, where irradiances and detunings of the optical lattice lights are varied within the dissipative regime. Induced drift velocities in the order of one atomic recoil velocity have been achieved.
Using quantum Monte Carlo simulations, we show that density-density and pairing correlation functions of the one-dimensional attractive fermionic Hubbard model in a harmonic confinement potential are characterized by the anomalous dimension $K_rho$ of a corresponding periodic system, and hence display quantum critical behavior. The corresponding fluctuations render the SU(2) symmetry breaking by the confining potential irrelevant, leading to structure form factors for both correlation functions that scale with the same exponent upon increasing the system size, thus giving rise to a (quasi)supersolid.
We report on three-dimensional optical trapping of single ions in an optical lattice formed by two counter-propagating laser beams. We characterize the trapping parameters of the standing wave using the ion as a sensor stored in a hybrid trap consisting of a radio-frequency (rf), a dc, and the optical potential. When loading ions directly from the rf into the standing-wave trap, we observe a dominant heating rate. Monte Carlo simulations confirm rf-induced parametric excitations within the deep optical lattice as the main source. We demonstrate a way around this effect by an alternative transfer protocol which involves an intermediate step of optical confinement in a single-beam trap avoiding the temporal overlap of the standing wave and the rf field. Implications arise for hybrid (rf/optical) and pure optical traps as platforms for ultra-cold chemistry experiments exploring atom--ion collisions or quantum simulation experiments with ions, or combinations of ions and atoms.