Abstract This chapter discusses some features exhibited by quantum gases in the presence of periodic optical potentials (optical lattices). The behaviour of the single-particle excitation spectrum exhibiting the typical Bloch band structure is briefly summarized. The equilibrium properties of a Bose–Einstein condensate and of the ideal Fermi gas are discussed, with special focus on the behaviour of the momentum distribution. It also considers the effects of localization in one-dimensional quasiperiodic potentials and the nature of Bloch oscillations. The chapter discusses the structure of the elementary excitations in an optical potential, including the motion of the centre of mass in the presence of an additional harmonic potential. Finally, the chapter mentions the problem of quantum fluctuations, and it introduces the physics of the Bose–Hubbard and Fermi–Hubbard models, whose systematic investigation lies outside the scope of this book.
Abstract This chapter discusses some features exhibited by quantum gases in the presence of periodic optical potentials (optical lattices). The behaviour of the single-particle excitation spectrum exhibiting the typical Bloch band structure is briefly summarized. The equilibrium properties of a Bose–Einstein condensate and of the ideal Fermi gas are discussed, with special focus on the behaviour of the momentum distribution. It also considers the effects of localization in one-dimensional quasiperiodic potentials and the nature of Bloch oscillations. The chapter discusses the structure of the elementary excitations in an optical potential, including the motion of the centre of mass in the presence of an additional harmonic potential. Finally, the chapter mentions the problem of quantum fluctuations, and it introduces the physics of the Bose–Hubbard and Fermi–Hubbard models, whose systematic investigation lies outside the scope of this book.
We discuss the Bloch-state solutions of the stationary Gross-Pitaevskii equation and of the Bogoliubov equations for a Bose-Einstein condensate in the presence of a one-dimensional optical lattice. The results for the compressibility, effective mass and velocity of sound are analysed as a function of the lattice depth and of the strength of the two-body interaction. The band structure of the spectrum of elementary excitations is compared with the one exhibited by the stationary solutions (Bloch bands). Moreover, the numerical calculations are compared with the analytic predictions of the tight binding approximation. We also discuss the role of quantum fluctuations and show that the condensate exhibits 3D, 2D or 1D features depending on the lattice depth and on the number of particles occupying each potential well. We finally show how, using a local density approximation, our results can be applied to study the behaviour of the gas in the presence of harmonic trapping.
We review our studies on Bose and Fermi superfluids of cold atomic gases in optical lattices at zero temperature. Especially, we focus on superfluid Fermi gases along the crossover between the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) and the Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) states, which enable us to study the Bose and the Fermi superfluids in a unified point of view. We discuss basic static and long-wavelength properties (such as the equation of state, incompressibility, and effective mass), energetic stability, and energy band structures of the superfluid Fermi gases in an optical lattice periodic along one spatial direction. The periodic potential causes pairs of atoms to be strongly bound, and this can affect the static and long-wavelength properties and the stability of the superflow. Regarding the band structure, a peculiar loop structure called “swallowtail” can appear in superfluid Fermi gases and in the Bose case, but the mechanism of emergence in the Fermi case is very different from that in bosonic case. Other quantum phases that the cold atomic gases in optical lattices can show are also briefly discussed based on their roles as quantum simulators of Hubbard models.
The physics of quantum particles in periodic potentials can be described in terms of Bloch waves and indeed many effects originally predicted for electrons moving in a lattice of ions have been observed for ultracold atoms in optical lattices. Interactions among the atoms forming the BEC are responsible for the nonlinear character of the Bloch waves, resulting in the onset of different kinds of instabilities, we have performed a detailed investigation of the stability regimes of a condensate in a moving optical lattice, separately addressing the effects and the timescales of energetic and dynamic instabilities. Spin-polarized Fermi gases are free from these effects and fundamental conduction phenomena, such as the crossover from a conducting to an insulating behaviour, the latter due to a localization of the particles in the lattice, can be observed
Quantum gases in optical lattices allow for fundamental studies in atomic and condensed-matter physics and the exploration of novel effects. After a brief introduction to the fundamentals of quantum gas experiments in optical lattices, we discuss two recent experiments focusing on driven matter waves in a one-dimensional optical lattice. The first experiment uses a tilted bichromatic optical lattice to investigate the interplay of disorder and collisional interactions in the accelerated transport of a Bose-Einstein condensate. Here, a screening effect is observed, in which the interactions effectively cancel the damping of Bloch oscillations induced by a (quasi-)disordered potential. This effect can be understood through a modification of the underlying band structure by the interactions. The second experiment studies the dynamics of a weakly trapped condensate resonantly coupled to the orbitals of a strongly confining state-selective lattice. We observe momentum distributions that correspond to matter wave diffraction from a periodic structure; however, the diffractive dynamics remain strongly linked to the internal-state Rabi oscillations. In the regime investigated, which we call the nonadiabatic regime, no diffracting potential can be defined. We show how only for much stronger coupling, the internal and external dynamics decouple, transitioning from nonadiabatic diffraction to the well-studied Kapitza-Dirac diffraction. We further investigate prospects for realizing dissipative spin models in our ultracold atomic gas experiment. To this end, we develop and test in the laboratory several possible implementations of effective spins with differential coupling to a superfluid background and examine their viability for a realization of the spin-boson model. | 94 pages
This thesis contains theoretical research on ultracold quantum gases in spatially periodic potentials, featuring high-frequency periodic driving, long-range interactions, or both. The largest part features deep potentials where the behaviour of the gas is well-described by quantum lattice models. The periodic driving is then integrated out to obtain effective time-independent descriptions. One project investigates emergent long-range interactions in a stationary, weak, spatially periodic potential, where a lattice theory is not appropriate.In two short introductory chapters, the topics of ultracold atoms, optical lattice potentials, periodic driving, and long-range interactions, are sketched, without attempting to give a complete overview. Some experimentally relevant length and energy scales are given, but the main focus is on deriving and constructing theoretical descriptions of ultracold gases in various spatially and/or temporally periodic potentials.The first project presented, is focused on how the single-particle spectrum of a Bose gas in a non-separable two-dimensional square lattice is affected by high-frequency periodic driving; the most striking conclusion is that under suitable circumstances, it develops two inequivalent minima, leading to finite-momentum Bose-Einstein condensation. Perturbative calculations indicate that local interactions induce spontaneous time-reversal symmetry breaking (TRSB) in such a system.The second project investigates the interplay between kinetic frustration and long-range interactions in fermionic gases. Both a mean-field approximation and exact diagonalisations predict that such a system, studied in the more specific realisation of a weakly interacting dipolar fermionic gas in a 2D triangular lattice, also leads to spontaneous TRSB. Furthermore, a density wave could form at quarter filling, where the Fermi surface is perfectly nested. Perhaps more interesting yet, a spatially inhomogeneous TRSB pattern is predicted, confined to the low-density sublattice that emerges in the density wave.The third project revolves around the question of supersolidity in the presence of a gauge field. Applying the Bogolyubov approximation to a variation of the extended Bose-Hubbard model, indicates that combining an artificial staggered magnetic field in a 2D square lattice with nearest-neighbour density-density interactions, not only leads to a supersolid with staggered vortices, but also induces an inhomogeneous distribution of the associated currents around the elementary plaquette.In the fourth project, a one-dimensional Bose gas with strong local interactions in a weak lattice at incommensurate densities is shown to feature excitations corresponding to excess or deficit particles. The excitations interact repulsively at long distances, in spite of the fact that the underlying atoms themselves do not. As a consequence, the incommensurability of the density with the lattice can drive a transition to a density wave and even a supersolid.The four above-mentioned research projects combine bosonic and fermionic gases, weak and strong interactions, perturbative and mean-field approximations, effective field theories and exact diagonalisations. The main overall conclusion is that long-range interactions and high-frequency periodic driving lead to a very diverse range of fascinating phenomena in ultracold lattice gases.