Transport controlled by Poincaré orbit topology in a driven inhomogeneous lattice gas

Abstract

In periodic quantum systems which are both homogeneously tilted and driven, the interplay between drive and Bloch oscillations controls transport dynamics. Using a quantum gas in a modulated optical lattice, we show experimentally that inhomogeneity of the applied force leads to a rich new variety of dynamical behaviors controlled by the drive phase, from self-parametrically-modulated Bloch epicycles to adaptive driving of transport against a force gradient to modulation-enhanced monopole modes. Matching experimental observations to fit-parameter-free numerical predictions of time-dependent band theory, we show that these phenomena can be quantitatively understood as manifestations of an underlying inhomogeneity-induced phase space structure, in which topological classification of stroboscopic Poincaré orbits controls the transport dynamics.

6 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (8)

• Strongly Correlated Quantum Walks in Optical Lattices
• Control of Interaction-Induced Dephasing of Bloch Oscillations
• Observation of photon-assisted tunneling in optical lattices
• Exploring dynamic localization with a Bose-Einstein condensate
• Coherent Delocalization of Atomic Wave Packets in Driven Lattice Potentials
• Dynamics of matter-wave solitons in a ratchet potential
• Topological pumping assisted by Bloch oscillations
• Super Bloch oscillations with modulated interaction