224 research outputs found
Particle correlations in a fermi superfluid
We discuss correlations between particles of different momentum in a
superfluid fermi gas, accessible through noise measurements of absorption
images of the expanded gas. We include two elements missing from the simplest
treatment, based on the BCS wavefunction: the explicit use of a conserving
approximation satisfying particle number conservation, and the inclusion of the
contribution from Cooper pairs at finite momentum. We expect the latter to be a
significant issue in the strongly correlated state emerging in the BCS-BEC
crossover.Comment: Published versio
Adiabatic loading of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a 3D optical lattice
We experimentally investigate the adiabatic loading of a Bose-Einstein
condensate into an optical lattice potential. The generation of excitations
during the ramp is detected by a corresponding decrease in the visibility of
the interference pattern observed after free expansion of the cloud. We focus
on the superfluid regime, where we show that the limiting time scale is related
to the redistribution of atoms across the lattice by single-particle tunneling
Time-resolved Observation and Control of Superexchange Interactions with Ultracold Atoms in Optical Lattices
Quantum mechanical superexchange interactions form the basis of quantum
magnetism in strongly correlated electronic media. We report on the direct
measurement of superexchange interactions with ultracold atoms in optical
lattices. After preparing a spin-mixture of ultracold atoms in an
antiferromagnetically ordered state, we measure a coherent
superexchange-mediated spin dynamics with coupling energies from 5 Hz up to 1
kHz. By dynamically modifying the potential bias between neighboring lattice
sites, the magnitude and sign of the superexchange interaction can be
controlled, thus allowing the system to be switched between antiferromagnetic
or ferromagnetic spin interactions. We compare our findings to predictions of a
two-site Bose-Hubbard model and find very good agreement, but are also able to
identify corrections which can be explained by the inclusion of direct
nearest-neighbor interactions.Comment: 24 pages, 7 figure
Preparation and detection of d-wave superfluidity in two-dimensional optical superlattices
We propose a controlled method to create and detect d-wave superfluidity with
ultracold fermionic atoms loaded in two-dimensional optical superlattices. Our
scheme consists in preparing an array of nearest-neighbor coupled square
plaquettes or ``superplaquettes'' and using them as building blocks to
construct a d-wave superfluid state. We describe how to use the coherent
dynamical evolution in such a system to experimentally probe the pairing
mechanism. We also derive the zero temperature phase diagram of the fermions in
a checkerboard lattice (many weakly coupled plaquettes) and show that by tuning
the inter-plaquette tunneling spin-dependently or varying the filling factor
one can drive the system into a d-wave superfluid phase or a Cooper pair
density wave phase. We discuss the use of noise correlation measurements to
experimentally probe these phases.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure
Coherent collisional spin dynamics in optical lattices
We report on the observation of coherent, purely collisionally driven spin
dynamics of neutral atoms in an optical lattice. For high lattice depths, atom
pairs confined to the same lattice site show weakly damped Rabi-type
oscillations between two-particle Zeeman states of equal magnetization, induced
by spin changing collisions. This paves the way towards the efficient creation
of robust entangled atom pairs in an optical lattice. Moreover, measurement of
the oscillation frequency allows for precise determination of the spin-changing
collisional coupling strengths, which are directly related to fundamental
scattering lengths describing interatomic collisions at ultracold temperatures.Comment: revised version; 4 pages, 5 figure
Exploring the Kondo model in and out of equilibrium with alkaline-earth atoms
We propose a scheme to realize the Kondo model with tunable anisotropy using
alkaline-earth atoms in an optical lattice. The new feature of our setup is
Floquet engineering of interactions using time-dependent Zeeman shifts, that
can be realized either using state-dependent optical Stark shifts or magnetic
fields. The properties of the resulting Kondo model strongly depend on the
anisotropy of the ferromagnetic interactions. In particular, easy-plane
couplings give rise to Kondo singlet formation even though microscopic
interactions are all ferromagnetic. We discuss both equilibrium and dynamical
properties of the system that can be measured with ultracold atoms, including
the impurity spin susceptibility, the impurity spin relaxation rate, as well as
the equilibrium and dynamical spin correlations between the impurity and the
ferromagnetic bath atoms. We analyze the non-equilibrium time evolution of the
system using a variational non-Gaussian approach, which allows us to explore
coherent dynamics over both short and long timescales, as set by the bandwidth
and the Kondo singlet formation, respectively. In the quench-type experiments,
when the Kondo interaction is suddenly switched on, we find that real-time
dynamics shows crossovers reminiscent of poor man's renormalization group flow
used to describe equilibrium systems. For bare easy-plane ferromagnetic
couplings, this allows us to follow the formation of the Kondo screening cloud
as the dynamics crosses over from ferromagnetic to antiferromagnetic behavior.
On the other side of the phase diagram, our scheme makes it possible to measure
quantum corrections to the well-known Korringa law describing the temperature
dependence of the impurity spin relaxation rate. Theoretical results discussed
in our paper can be measured using currently available experimental techniques.Comment: 22 pages, 12 figure
Noise Thermometry with Two Weakly Coupled Bose-Einstein Condensates
Here we report on the experimental investigation of thermally induced
fluctuations of the relative phase between two Bose-Einstein condensates which
are coupled via tunneling. The experimental control over the coupling strength
and the temperature of the thermal background allows for the quantitative
analysis of the phase fluctuations. Furthermore, we demonstrate the application
of these measurements for thermometry in a regime where standard methods fail.
With this we confirm that the heat capacity of an ideal Bose gas deviates from
that of a classical gas as predicted by the third law of thermodynamics.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Lattice bosons in quartic confinement
We present a theoretical study of bose condensation of non-interacting bosons
in finite lattices in quartic potentials in one, two, and three dimensions. We
investigate dimensionality effects and quartic potential effects on single
boson density of energy states, condensation temperature, condensate fraction,
and specific heat. The results obtained are compared with corresponding results
for lattice bosons in harmonic traps.Comment: revised version, 11 pages including figures, accepted in EPJ
Precision measurement of spin-dependent interaction strengths for spin-1 and spin-2 87Rb atoms
We report on precision measurements of spin-dependent interaction-strengths
in the 87Rb spin-1 and spin-2 hyperfine ground states. Our method is based on
the recent observation of coherence in the collisionally driven spin-dynamics
of ultracold atom pairs trapped in optical lattices. Analysis of the Rabi-type
oscillations between two spin states of an atom pair allows a direct
determination of the coupling parameters in the interaction hamiltonian. We
deduce differences in scattering lengths from our data that can directly be
compared to theoretical predictions in order to test interatomic potentials.
Our measurements agree with the predictions within 20%. The knowledge of these
coupling parameters allows one to determine the nature of the magnetic ground
state. Our data imply a ferromagnetic ground state for 87Rb in the f=1
manifold, in agreement with earlier experiments performed without the optical
lattice. For 87Rb in the f=2 manifold the data points towards an
antiferromagnetic ground state, however our error bars do not exclude a
possible cyclic phase.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure
Hybrid 2D surface trap for quantum simulation
We demonstrate a novel optical trapping scheme for ultracold atoms. Using a
combination of evanescent wave, standing wave, and magnetic potentials we
create a deeply 2D Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) at a few microns from a glass
surface. Using techniques such as broadband "white" light to create evanescent
and standing waves, we realize a smooth potential with a trap frequency aspect
ratio of 300:1:1 and long lifetimes. This makes the setup suitable for
many-body quantum simulations and applications such as high precision
measurements close to surfaces.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
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