Ultracold atoms in an optical lattice with dynamically variable periodicity

Abstract

The use of a dynamic "accordion" lattice with ultracold atoms is demonstrated. Ultracold atoms of ${}^{87}$Rb are trapped in a two-dimensional optical lattice, and the spacing of the lattice is then increased in both directions from 2.2 to 5.5 microns. Atoms remain bound for expansion times as short as a few milliseconds, and the experimentally measured minimum ramp time is found to agree well with numerical calculations. This technique allows an experiment such as quantum simulations to be performed with a lattice spacing smaller than the resolution limit of the imaging system, while allowing imaging of the atoms at individual lattice sites by subsequent expansion of the optical lattice.

4 pages, 3 figures. Minor changes made and references updated

References in corpus (5)

• Many-Body Physics with Ultracold Gases
• Ultracold atomic gases in optical lattices: mimicking condensed matter physics and beyond
• Real-time control of the periodicity of a standing wave: an optical accordion
• Dynamic optical lattices: two-dimensional rotating and accordion lattices for ultracold atoms
• Creation of resilient entangled states and a resource for measurement-based quantum computation with optical superlattices