10 research outputs found
Dynamics of Bloch Oscillations in Disordered Lattice Potentials
We present a detailed analysis of the dynamics of Bloch oscillations of
Bose-Einstein condensates in disordered lattice potentials. Due to the disorder
and the interparticle interactions these oscillations undergo a dephasing,
reflected in a damping of the center of mass oscillations, which should be
observable under realistic experimental conditions. The interplay between
interactions and disorder is far from trivial, ranging from an
interaction-enhanced damping due to modulational instability for strong
interactions, to an interaction-reduced damping due to a dynamical screening of
the disorder potential
Routes towards Anderson-Like localization of Bose-Einstein condensates in disordered optical lattices
We investigate, both experimentally and theoretically, possible routes
towards Anderson-like localization of Bose-Einstein condensates in disordered
potentials. The dependence of this quantum interference effect on the nonlinear
interactions and the shape of the disorder potential is investigated.
Experiments with an optical lattice and a superimposed disordered potential
reveal the lack of Anderson localization. A theoretical analysis shows that
this absence is due to the large length scale of the disorder potential as well
as its screening by the nonlinear interactions. Further analysis shows that
incommensurable superlattices should allow for the observation of the
cross-over from the nonlinear screening regime to the Anderson localized case
within realistic experimental parameters.Comment: 4 pages to appear in Phys. Rev. Let
Damped Bloch Oscillations of Bose-Einstein Condensates in Disordered Potential Gradients
We investigate both experimentally and theoretically disorder induced damping
of Bloch oscillations of Bose-Einstein condensates in optical lattices. The
spatially inhomogeneous force responsible for the damping is realised by a
combination of a disordered optical and a magnetic gradient potential. We show
that the inhomogeneity of this force results in a broadening of the
quasimomentum spectrum, which in turn causes damping of the centre-of-mass
oscillation. We quantitatively compare the obtained damping rates to the
simulations using the Gross-Pitaevskii equation. Our results are relevant for
high precision experiments on very small forces, which require the observation
of a large number of oscillation cycles.Comment: to be published in New Journal of Physic
Analysis of Localization Phenomena in Weakly Interacting Disordered Lattice Gases
Disorder plays a crucial role in many systems particularly in solid state
physics. However, the disorder in a particular system can usually not be chosen
or controlled. We show that the unique control available for ultracold atomic
gases may be used for the production and observation of disordered quantum
degenerate gases. A detailed analysis of localization effects for two possible
realizations of a disordered potential is presented. In a theoretical analysis
clear localization effects are observed when a superlattice is used to provide
a quasiperiodic disorder. The effects of localization are analyzed by
investigating the superfluid fraction and the localization length within the
system. The theoretical analysis in this paper paves a clear path for the
future observation of Anderson-like localization in disordered quantum gases.Comment: 9 pages, 13 figure
Cold Atomic Gases in Optical Lattices with Disorder
Cold atomic gases placed in optical lattices enable studies of simple condensed matter theory models with parameters that may be tuned relatively easily. When the optical potential is randomized (e.g. using laser speckle to create a random intensity distribution) one may be able to observe Anderson localization of matter waves for non-interacting bosons, the so-called Bose glass in the presence of interactions, as well as the Fermi glass or quantum spin glass for mixtures of fermions and bosons
Cold Atomic Gases in Optical Lattices with Disorder
Cold atomic gases placed in optical lattices enable studies of simple condensed matter theory models with parameters that may be tuned relatively easily. When the optical potential is randomized (e.g. using laser speckle to create a random intensity distribution) one may be able to observe Anderson localization of matter waves for non-interacting bosons, the so-called Bose glass in the presence of interactions, as well as the Fermi glass or quantum spin glass for mixtures of fermions and bosons