Hannover 2010 – scientific programme

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A: Fachverband Atomphysik

A 23: Poster II

A 23.33: Poster

Thursday, March 11, 2010, 16:30–19:00, Lichthof

Three-dimensional Rotons and Supersolids in Rydberg-BECs — •Nils Henkel, Rejish Nath, and Thomas Pohl — Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Dresden, Germany

We study properties of Bose Einstein condensates, in which atoms are optically coupled to highly excited Rydberg states, featuring strong van der Waals interactions. This procedure leads to effective groundstate interactions, whose shape can be widely tuned through the applied laser parameters. The special form of the resulting interaction potential is shown to result in a Roton-Maxon type dispersion relation in stable three-dimensional condensates, and to ultimately induce a transition to a supersolid groundstate. We present a theoretical as well as a numerical approach and find excellent agreement between them. Our results indicate that the Roton instability occurs for realistic laser parameters, suggesting that formation of self-assembled supersolids is feasible in current cold atom experiments.