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arXiv:cond-mat/0604154 · New Journal of Physics

Hanbury Brown–Twiss interferometry for fractional and integer Mott phases

Ana Maria Rey, Indubala I Satija, Charles W Clark

Published Aug 30, 2006• 20 citations
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Abstract

The theoretical framework of Hanbury Brown–Twiss interferometry (HBTI) is used to study integer and fractionally filled Mott insulator (MI) phases in period-2 optical superlattices. In contrast to the quasimomentum distribution, this second order interferometry pattern exhibits high contrast fringes in the insulating phases . Our detailed study of HBTI suggests that this interference pattern signals the various superfluid–insulator transitions and therefore can be used as a practical method to determine the phase diagram of the system. We find that in the presence of a confining potential the insulating phases become robust as they exist for a finite range of atom numbers. Furthermore, we show that in the trapped case, the HBTI interferogram signals the formation of the MI domains and probes the shell structure of the system.

DOI
10.1088/1367-2630/8/8/155

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The theoretical framework of Hanbury Brown–Twiss interferometry (HBTI) is used to study integer and fractionally filled Mott insulator (MI) phases in period-2 optical superlattices. In contrast to the quasimomentum distribution, this second order interferometry pattern exhibits high contrast fringes in the insulating phases . Our detailed study of HBTI suggests that this interference pattern signals the various superfluid–insulator transitions and therefore can be used as a practical method to determine the phase diagram of the system. We find that in the presence of a confining potential the insulating phases become robust as they exist for a finite range of atom numbers. Furthermore, we show that in the trapped case, the HBTI interferogram signals the formation of the MI domains and probes the shell structure of the system.
Quantum phases of hard core bosons (HCBs) confined in a one-dimensional quasiperiodic (QP) potential are studied within the theoretical framework of Hanbury-Brown-Twiss interferometry. The QP potential induces a cascade of Mott-like band-insulator phases in the extended regime, in addition to the Mott insulator, Bose glass, and superfluid phases. The new phases are incompressible and have zero superfluid fraction. At critical filling factors, the appearance of these insulating phases is heralded by a peak to dip transition in the interferogram, which reflects the fermionic aspect of HCBs. In the localized phase, the interference pattern exhibits an hierarchy of peaks at the reciprocal lattice vectors of the system. Our study demonstrates that in contrast to the momentum distribution, HBTI provides an effective method to distinguish Mott and glassy phases.
We present a study of the superfluid properties of atomic Bose gases in optical lattice potentials using the Bose-Hubbard model. To do this, we use a microscopic definition of the superfluid fraction based on the response of the system to a phase variation imposed by means of twisted boundary conditions. We compare the superfluid fraction to other physical quantities, i.e., the interference pattern after ballistic expansion, the quasimomentum distribution, and number fluctuations. We have performed exact numerical calculations of all these quantities for small one-dimensional systems. We show that the superfluid fraction alone exhibits a clear signature of the Mott-insulator transition. Observables like the fringe visibility, which probe only ground-state properties, do not provide direct information on superfluidity and the Mott-insulator transition.
We use Hanbury-Brown-Twiss interferometry (HBTI) to study various quantum phases of hard core bosons (HCBs) and ideal fermions confined in a one-dimensional quasi-periodic (QP) potential. For HCBs, the QP potential induces a cascade of Mott-like band-insulator phases in the extended regime, in addition to the Mott insulator, Bose glass, and superfluid phases. At critical filling factors, the appearance of these insulating phases is heralded by a peak to dip transition in the interferogram, which reflects the fermionic aspect of HCBs. On the other hand, ideal fermions in the extended phase display various complexities of incommensurate structures such as devil’s staircases and Arnold tongues. In the localized phase, the HCB and the fermion correlations are identical except for the sign of the peaks. Finally, we demonstrate that HBTI provides an effective method to distinguish Mott and glassy phases.
We investigate the zero-temperature phase diagram of a gas of bosonic atoms in one- and two-color standing-wave lattices in the framework of the Bose-Hubbard model. We first introduce some relevant physical quantities; superfluid fraction, condensate fraction, quasimomentum distribution, and matter-wave interference pattern. We then discuss the relationships between them on the formal level and show that the superfluid fraction, which is the relevant order parameter for the superfluid to Mott-insulator transition, cannot be probed directly via the matter-wave interference patterns. The formal considerations are supported by exact numerical solutions of the Bose-Hubbard model for uniform one-dimensional systems. We then map out the phase diagram of bosons in nonuniform lattices. The emphasis is on optical two-color superlattices which exhibit a sinusoidal modulation of the well depth and can be easily realized experimentally. From the study of the superfluid fraction, the energy gap, and other quantities, we identify additional zero-temperature phases, including a localized and a quasi-Bose-glass phase, and discuss prospects for their experimental observation.
We investigate the ground-state and finite-temperature phase diagrams of the Bose-Hubbard model on a honeycomb superlattice. The interplay between the superlattice potential depth $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}/t$ and the on-site interaction U/tU/tU/t gives rise to three distinct quantum phases at zero temperature: a superfluid phase, a Mott insulator I phase with unit filling on each site, and a Mott insulator II phase characterized by density imbalance---double occupancy on one sublattice and vacancy on the other at unit filling. The SF-MI transitions are found to be continuous, consistent with second-order quantum phase transitions. We further extend our analysis to finite temperatures within the superfluid regime. Our work highlights how a honeycomb superlattice geometry enables access to interaction- and lattice-modulation-driven quantum phases, including a density-imbalanced Mott insulator and a robust superfluid regime, offering concrete theoretical predictions for cold-atom experiments.
We study bosonic atoms in optical honeycomb lattices with anisotropic tunneling and find dimerized Mott insulator (MI) phases with fractional filling. These incompressible insulating phases are characterized by an interaction-driven localization of particles in respect to the individual dimers and large local particle-number fluctuations within the dimers. We calculate the ground-state phase diagrams and the excitation spectra using an accurate cluster mean-field method. The cluster treatment enables us to probe the fundamental excitations of the dimerized MI where the excitation gap is dominated by the intra-dimer tunneling amplitude. This allows the distinction from normal Mott insulating phases gapped by the on-site interaction. In addition, we present analytical results for the phase diagram derived by a higher-order strong-coupling perturbative expansion approach. By computing finite lattices with large diameters the influence of a harmonic confinement is discussed in detail. It is shown that a large fraction of atoms forms the dimerized MI under experimental conditions. The necessary anisotropic tunneling can be realized either by periodic driving of the optical lattice or by engineering directly a dimerized lattice potential. The dimers can be mapped to their antisymmetric states creating a lattice with coupled p -orbitals.