We investigate the resonantly enhanced tunneling dynamics of ultracold bosons loaded on a tilted one-dimensional optical lattice, which can be used to simulate a chain of Ising spins and associated quantum phase transitions. The center-of-mass motion after a sudden tilt both at commensurate and incommensurate fillings is obtained via analytic, time-dependent exact diagonalization and density-matrix renormalization-group methods. We identify a maximum in the amplitude of the center-of-mass oscillations at the quantum critical point of the effective spin system. For the dynamics of incommensurate systems, which cannot be mapped to a spin model, we develop an analytical approach in which the time evolution is obtained by projecting onto resonant families of small clusters. We compare the results of this approach at low fillings to the exact time evolution and find good agreement even at filling factors as large as 2/3. Using this projection onto small clusters, we propose a controllable transport scheme applicable in the context of Atomtronic devices on optical lattices (``slinky scheme'').
We investigate the resonantly enhanced tunneling dynamics of ultracold bosons loaded on a tilted one-dimensional optical lattice, which can be used to simulate a chain of Ising spins and associated quantum phase transitions. The center-of-mass motion after a sudden tilt both at commensurate and incommensurate fillings is obtained via analytic, time-dependent exact diagonalization and density-matrix renormalization-group methods. We identify a maximum in the amplitude of the center-of-mass oscillations at the quantum critical point of the effective spin system. For the dynamics of incommensurate systems, which cannot be mapped to a spin model, we develop an analytical approach in which the time evolution is obtained by projecting onto resonant families of small clusters. We compare the results of this approach at low fillings to the exact time evolution and find good agreement even at filling factors as large as 2/3. Using this projection onto small clusters, we propose a controllable transport scheme applicable in the context of Atomtronic devices on optical lattices (``slinky scheme'').
In this thesis, we present a theoretical study of the dynamics of strongly interacting ultracold atoms in optical lattices. At ultracold temperatures, the dynamics cannot be described classically, but instead, must take into account quantum effects. Here, our focus is on transport and precision measurement. We use exact analysis of few-body systems and mean field analysis. For larger systems, we use a numerical approach called the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) method which is considered an efficient computational tool for the quantum evolution of 1D systems.\nAfter introducing basic concepts, we treat the motional properties of particles in a tilted lattice in a regime where the inter-particle interactions are resonant with the linear potential. In this regime, the dynamics is described by an Ising model with a transverse field which is a basic system to study quantum magnetism and quantum phase transitions. We introduce analytical and numerical methods to draw a simple picture of the dynamics. This helps us to formulate a slinky-like transport scheme that provides full control of the motional direction of particles.\nAfter a study of transport on a tilted lattice, we treat the transport of nonlinear waves in strongly interacting systems. These nonlinear waves are called solitons, which are described as local perturbations of a medium that survive after collisions. We identify two species of classical soliton solutions in our system and study their stability under quantum evolution via DMRG.\nWe shift focus from the dynamics related to transport and turn to precision measurements in optical lattice clocks. Here, we investigate one aspect of their limitations which is due to collisions of atoms loaded onto a single site. These collisions introduce a frequency shift in the clock measurement. We provide a microscopic description of the origin of this frequency shift. Our results have motivated improvement in the accuracy and precision of next generation optical lattice clocks.
Quantum tunneling is one of the most fundamental processes in nature. Single particle hopping of ultracold atoms in optical lattices changes its character dramatically when the ensemble is prepared in strongly correlated quantum phases due to atom-atom interactions. Correlated hopping in a Mott-insulating chain of bosons that is tilted to the Mott gap has recently been employed to study long-range order in the 1D transvers Ising model [1,2]. We study correlated tunneling dynamics for an ensemble of tilted 1D Mott chains after a sudden quench to the vicinity of the Ising paramagnetic to antiferromagnetic phase transition point [3]. The quench results in coherent oscillations for the orientation of effective Ising spins, detected via oscillations in the number of doubly occupied lattice sites. We characterize the quench by varying the system parameters. We report significant modification of the tunneling rate induced by interactions and show clear evidence for collective effects in the oscillatory response. We observe higher-order many-body tunneling processes over up to five lattice sites when the tilt per site is tuned to integer fractions of the Mott gap. Secondand third-order tunneling shows up in the transient response after the quench, from which we extract the characteristic scaling in accordance with perturbation theory and numerical simulations. In a second set of experiments we study the response of an ensemble of 1D superfluids in the Bose-Hubbard regime when subject to a tilt [4]. For large values of the tilt, we observe interaction-induced coherent decay and matter-wave quantum phase revivals of the Bloch oscillating ensemble. We analyze the revival period dependence on interactions by means of a Feshbach resonance. When reducing the value of the tilt, we observe the disappearance of the quasi-periodic phase revival signature towards an irreversible decay of Bloch oscillations, indicating the transition from regular to quantum chaotic dynamics.
We study the nonequilibrium dynamics of a one-dimensional Bose-Hubbard model in a gradient potential and a superlattice, beginning from a deep Mott insulator regime with an average filling of one particle per site. Studying a quench that is near resonance to tunneling of the particles over two lattice sites, we show how a spin model emerges consisting of two coupled Ising chains that are coupled by interaction terms in a staggered geometry. We compare and contrast the behavior in this case with that in a previously studied case where the resonant tunneling was over a single site. Using optimized tensor network techniques to calculate finite-temperature behavior of the model, as well as finite-size scaling for the ground state, we conclude that the universality class of the phase transition for the coupled chains is that of a tricritical Ising point. We also investigate the out-of-equilibrium dynamics after the quench in the vicinity of the resonance and compare dynamics with recent experiments realized without the superlattice geometry. This model is directly realizable in current experiments and reflects a general way to realize spin models with ultracold atoms in optical lattices.
We study the dynamics of bosonic atoms in a tilted one-dimensional optical lattice and report on the first direct observation of density-induced tunneling. We show that the interaction affects the time evolution of the doublon oscillation via density-induced tunneling and pinpoint its density and interaction dependence. The experimental data for different lattice depths are in good agreement with our theoretical model. Furthermore, resonances caused by second-order tunneling processes are studied, where the density-induced tunneling breaks the symmetric behavior for attractive and repulsive interactions predicted by the Hubbard model.
This thesis presents quantum simulation of strongly-correlated systems beyond standard Hubbard models, using ultracold fermionic potassium atoms in both static and periodically-driven optical superlattices. For this study, we utilize a three-dimensional optical lattice setup, controlling particle interactions via magnetic Feshbach resonances and tunneling between lattice sites through optical lattice intensity. High-resolution absorption imaging combined with radio-frequency spectroscopy distinguishes between singly and doubly occupied sites. To enhance our systems capabilities beyond the standard Hubbard model, we extend the apparatus with an in-plane optical superlattice, creating a bi-chromatic structure by superposition of two optical lattices with commensurate lattice spacings. Using a phase locked loop with an environmental feed forward, we create an excellent phase stability of the superlattice exceeding 3 mrad. This precision allows us to explore both static and periodically-driven one-dimensional tight-binding models with strong interactions. We characterize the static superlattice through radio-frequency spectroscopy and Rabi oscillations, and validate the experimental data against theoretical calculations. In a tilted superlattice configuration, we successfully prepare and detect repulsively bound atom pairs, representing a highly excited eigenstate of the system. Furthermore, we demonstrate control over pair tunneling dynamics in a double-well potential using Floquet engineering, employing a low-noise periodic modulation of the optical superlattice tilt. Using an adiabatic band mapping technique, we directly observe the tunneling dynamics in the driven superlattice. We realize dynamic localization in quarter-filled wells and density-assisted tunneling up to the third harmonic order in half-filled wells. We observe a crossover from density-assited tunneling to dominant pair tunneling by tuning the effective interactions. Remarkably, the pair tunneling is not only enhanced relative to the suppressed single-particle tunneling but also exceeds the superexchange rate of a static double-well by more than a factor of two. This opens the possibility to study many-body systems with dominant pair tunneling, that extend beyond the standard Hubbard model.
Ultracold bosonic gases in optical lattices are strongly correlated quantum systems similar to solids. The strong correlation between the electrons in a solid on the one hand, and the bosonic atoms in optical lattice on the other, exhibit various quantum phenomena like insulation, conductivity, localization of electrons and atoms, respectively. Controlled by the intensity of the lattice laser, the ultracold bosonic gas can be transferred from a regime with superfluid character for shallow lattices into a regime of strong correlations, the Mott insulator. As an additional external parameter besides the lattice depth, one can generate spatial inhomogeneities by superimposing an additional standing wave (so-called two-color superlattices), which gives rise to localization effects or the formation of a Bose-glass phase. In the present work, numerical simulations are employed in order to investigate characteristic signatures of the quantum phases in the low-energy excitation spectrum of one-dimensional systems. We simulate temporal small amplitude modulations of the optical lattice in analogy to experiments, and evaluate the response of the system from the time-evolved initial state. The lattice systems are described in the framework of the Bose-Hubbard model. For the evaluation of the time-evolved state, we employ several numerical methods. We analyze systems of small size (6 particles on 6 sites) using an exact time-evolution by integration of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation. The formulation of an importance truncation scheme enables us to retain only the relevant components of the model space in the strongly correlated regime and, thus, allows for the investigation of systems with 10 particles on 10 sites using exact time-evolution. Based on this method, we present results of the Mott-insulating regime as well as for the Bose-glass phase. Furthermore, we employ particle-hole methods, which allow for the treatment of systems with experimental lattice sizes and particle numbers. Starting from the equation of motion method we adapt the Tamm-Dancoff approximation as well as the random-phase approximation for the occupation number representation of the Bose-Hubbard model. We present results of simulations of up to 50 particles on 50 sites and discuss the impact of the lattice depth on the low-energy excitations (U-resonance). Moreover, the impact of a two-color superlattice and the variation of its amplitude is investigated.