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arXiv:cond-mat/0606216 · Physical Review Letters

Mott-Insulator Transition in a Two-Dimensional Atomic Bose Gas

Ian B. Spielman, William D. Phillips, J. V. Porto

Published Feb 22, 2007• 414 citations
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Abstract

Cold atoms in periodic potentials are versatile quantum systems for implementing simple models prevalent in condensed matter theory. Here we realize the 2D Bose-Hubbard model by loading a Bose-Einstein condensate into an optical lattice, and study the resulting Mott insulator. The measured momentum distributions agree quantitatively with theory (no adjustable parameters). In these systems, the Mott insulator forms in a spatially discrete shell structure which we probe by focusing on correlations in atom shot noise. These correlations show a marked dependence on the lattice depth, consistent with the changing size of the insulating shell expected from simple arguments.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.98.080404

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Cold atoms in periodic potentials are versatile quantum systems for implementing simple models prevalent in condensed matter theory. Here we realize the 2D Bose-Hubbard model by loading a Bose-Einstein condensate into an optical lattice, and study the resulting Mott insulator. The measured momentum distributions agree quantitatively with theory (no adjustable parameters). In these systems, the Mott insulator forms in a spatially discrete shell structure which we probe by focusing on correlations in atom shot noise. These correlations show a marked dependence on the lattice depth, consistent with the changing size of the insulating shell expected from simple arguments.
Ultracold atoms in optical lattices realize simple condensed matter models. We create an ensemble of ≈60 harmonically trapped 2D Bose-Hubbard systems from a 87Rb Bose-Einstein condensate in an optical lattice and use a magnetic resonance imaging approach to select a few 2D systems for study, thereby eliminating ensemble averaging. Our identification of the transition from superfluid to Mott insulator, as a function of both atom density and lattice depth, is in excellent agreement with a universal state diagram [M. Rigol, Phys. Rev. A 79 053605 (2009)] suitable for our trapped system. In agreement with theory, our data suggest a failure of the local density approximation in the transition region.
An optical lattice is a periodic potential for atoms, created using a standing wave pattern of light. Due to the interaction between the light and the atoms, the atoms are attracted to either the nodes or the anti-nodes of the standing wave, depending on the exact wave lenght of the light. This means that if such a lattice is loaded with a sufficiently high number of ultracold atoms, a periodic array of atoms is obtained, we an interatomic distance of a few tenths of a micrometer. In order to obtain such a high number of cold atoms, one first has to create a so-called Bose-Einstein condensate. When an optical lattice is loaded from a Bose-Einstein condensate, it is possible to create a system in which every atom is in the lowest band of the lattice and there is on average one atom in each lattice site. Because the lattice potential is created with laser light, the depth of the lattice can easily be tuned by changing the intensity of the laser. When the intensity of the laser light is low, the atoms can tunnel from one site to the next. Due to this tunneling, the gas of atoms in the lattice will remain superfluid. However, if the intensity of the laser light is increased to above a certain critical value, a quantum phase transition occurs to a so-called Mott insulator. In this state, the atoms can no longer tunnel due to the fact that the on-site interaction between atoms becomes more important then the tunneling probability. In this PhD thesis, a description is given of the experimental setup that is being constructed in our group to create these systems in our lab. Also, a theoretical description is given of these systems and several important quantities our derived, such as the gap of the Mott-insulating state. Furthermore, an experiment is proposed that can be used to accurately measure this gap.
We study the dynamics of phase transitions in the one-dimensional Bose-Hubbard model. To drive the system from a Mott insulator to a superfluid phase, we change the tunneling frequency at a finite rate. We investigate the buildup of correlations during fast and slow transitions using variational wave functions, dynamical Bogoliubov theory, Kibble-Zurek mechanism, and numerical simulations. We show that time-dependent correlations satisfy characteristic scaling relations that can be measured in optical lattices filled with cold atoms.
87Rb Bose Einstein Condensate in 3D optical lattice was studied in the regime of weak interaction(the superfluid phase) and strong interaction(the Mott insulating phase). The stability of superfluid currents was studied using a moving optical lattice. The critical momentum for stable superfluid current varies from 0.5 recoil momentum (shallow lattice) to 0 (the Mott insulator) as the system reaches the Mott insulator transition. The phase diagram for the disappearance of superfluidity was studied as a function of momentum and lattice depth. Our phase diagram boundary ex-trapolates to the critical lattice depth for the superfluid-to-MI transition. When a one-dimensional gas was loaded into a moving optical lattice a sudden broadening of the transition between stable and unstable phases was observed. A new auxiliary vacuum chamber, which is called the science chamber, was de-signed and installed to improve optical lattice experimental performance and imaging resolution power. Atoms are transported from the main chamber to the science cham-ber. By further evaporation cooling, BECs with N- 2-3 x 104 atoms are produced
The dynamics of an ultracold dilute gas of bosonic atoms in an optical lattice can be described by a Bose-Hubbard model where the system parameters are controlled by laser light. We study the continuous (zero temperature) quantum phase transition from the superfluid to the Mott insulator phase induced by varying the depth of the optical potential, where the Mott insulator phase corresponds to a commensurate filling of the lattice (``optical crystal''). Examples for formation of Mott structures in optical lattices with a superimposed harmonic trap and in optical superlattices are presented.