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New Forms of Matter in Optical Lattices

Wolfgang Ketterle

Published May 19, 2016• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

Abstract : The project period features multiple advances at different frontiers of ultracold atom science. Our approach has been a joint experimental and theoretical effort. Experimentally, new technologies for optical lattices were implemented, including a two-layer quantum microscope, a flexible hexagonal lattice where the geometry of the lattice can be changed by polarization control, and a new fluorescence detection scheme for potassium using blue light.

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•Jan 1, 2017•1 citation
Abstract : The project period features multiple advances at different frontiers of ultracold atom science. Our approach has been a joint experimental and theoretical effort. Experimentally, new technologies for optical lattices were implemented, including a two-layer quantum microscope, a flexible hexagonal lattice where the geometry of the lattice can be changed by polarization control, and a new fluorescence detection scheme for potassium using blue light.
Abstract : Optical lattice systems provide an ideal platform for investigating entanglement because of their unprecedented level of flexibility and dynamical control in experiments. The goal of this research project was to utilize novel superlattice geometries where each lattice site is composed of a multiple-well potential. More specifically, the goals were: (i) Prepare and characterize various initial states of a rubidium and/or potassium system experimentally and theoretically. (ii) After an instantaneous or continuous change of the system Hamiltonian, follow the entanglement dynamics of the system using various theoretical techniques and compare to experimental measurements of correlation functions that quantify the entanglement. The studies aimed to provide deep insights into the emergence of entanglement and its connection to equilibration and thermalization mechanisms. A detailed understanding of these processes is essential for utilizing the full potential of entanglement and to refine quantum technology applications. As described in this and our progress reports, important results were obtained during the duration of the ARO grant.
Owing to rapid recent progress, ultracold atomic lattice systems for simulating topological phases are now at a pivotal stage, evolving from established paradigms into increasingly versatile and programmable quantum simulators. In this review, we survey recent experimental advances across four major classes of platforms: optical lattices, including optical lattices with laser-assisted tunneling and optical Raman lattices; synthetic lattices in momentum or internal-state space; Floquet-engineered lattices; and optical tweezer arrays, all of which offer distinct capabilities for realizing and probing topological matter. For each class, we highlight representative experimental breakthroughs, the topological models that have been realized, and the advanced detection and characterization techniques employed, emphasizing how these complementary approaches collectively expand the frontier of quantum simulation. We also discuss emerging directions in strongly correlated and nonequilibrium topological phases, and conclude with an outlook on future prospects.
Quantum simulation, a subdiscipline of quantum computation, can provide valuable insight into difficult quantum problems in physics or chemistry. Ultracold atoms in optical lattices represent an ideal platform for simulations of quantum many-body problems. Within this setting, quantum gas microscopes enable single atom observation and manipulation in large samples. Ultracold atom-based quantum simulators have already been used to probe quantum magnetism, to realize and detect topological quantum matter, and to study quantum systems with controlled long-range interactions. Experiments on many-body systems out of equilibrium have also provided results in regimes unavailable to the most advanced supercomputers. We review recent experimental progress in this field and comment on future directions.
Ultracold atoms in optical lattices have proven to provide an extremely clean and controlled setting to explore quantum many-body phases of matter. Now, imaging of atoms in such lattice structures has reached the level of single-atom sensitive detection combined with the highest resolution down to the level of individual lattice sites. This has opened up fundamentally new opportunities for the characterization and the control of quantum many-body systems. Here we give a brief overview of this field and explore the opportunities offered for future research.
Ultracold atomic gases trapped at the interference of coherent beams of light constitute an artificial material. This optical lattice material may be used for controlled quantum simulations of condensed matter theories. The bulk of this dissertation concerns the construction and calibration of an optical superlattice that can form the triangular, honeycomb and kagome crystal structures. The properties and geometry of this artificial material may be dynamically changed, allowing for the experiments discussed in this thesis that would be impossible with real materials. The use of ultracold atoms in optical lattices for quantitative tests is challenging because of the novelty of many of the techniques in the field, and because of the myriad experimental differences between these artificial materials and true materials. This thesis reports the development of a method to characterize optical lattice potentials using matter-wave diffraction. We observe an enhancement of inversion asymmetry in matter-wave diffraction from a honeycomb lattice, which we explain using a time-independent perturbative treatment of the single-particle band structure of the lattice. Our experiment also provides new insight into a commonly used detection technique. This thesis culminates in the development and experimental realization of a quantitative test of a condensed-matter theory. The test is insensitive to the experimental differences between artificial materials and real materials. We focus on a prediction from a mean-field treatment of the Bose-Hubbard model that concerns the difference in behavior of itinerant particles on lattices that are identical but for their geometry. Using the tunable geometry of our quantum simulator, we measure the properties of ultracold atomic gases trapped in the triangular and kagome lattices under otherwise identical conditions and find that they are consistent with the mean-field scaling prediction.