Stuttgart 2012 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 38: Quantengase: Optische Gitter 3

Q 38.1: Gruppenbericht

Donnerstag, 15. März 2012, 10:30–11:00, V53.01

Orbital optical lattices — •Matthias Ölschläger, Georg Wirth, Thorge Kock, and Andreas Hemmerich — Institut für Laser-Physik, Universität Hamburg, 22761 Hamburg, Germany

The orbital degree of freedom gives rise to a rich structural diversity in many particle systems and thus appears as an useful tool in the realm of optical lattices. Unfortunately bosonic atoms in higher Bloch bands generally suffer from short lifetimes, compromising the feasibility of this approach for such systems.

By using a bipartite optical square lattice with an adjustable time-phase difference, we can not only selectively excite atoms to higher bands but furthermore strongly suppress the interband relaxation. Collision aided condensation to the band minima reestablishes long range coherence and the resulting metastable orbital states can form exotic orders or be used to probe the underlying band structure.

Here, we report on our experimental observations and recent progress.