Berlin 2014 – scientific programme
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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 70: Quantum gases: Lattices IV
Q 70.1: Talk
Friday, March 21, 2014, 16:30–16:45, UDL HS2002
Towards ultracold gasses in a periodically driven hexagonal lattice — •Lucia Duca1,2, Tracy Li1,2, Martin Reitter1,2, Monika Schleier-Smith3, Immanuel Bloch1,2, and Ulrich Schneider1,2 — 1Fakultät für Physik, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München, Germany — 2Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Garching, Germany — 3Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States
Confining cold atoms in an optical lattice realizes a highly tunable system for simulating condensed matter phenomena in a clean and well controlled environment. Particularly interesting is the application of optical lattices to the studies of topologically distinct classes of physical system. Such properties can arise in cold atoms subjected to periodically driven optical lattices [1]. In our case we focus on cold atoms in a hexagonal lattice, which implements the graphene band structure. The effect of the drive is to induce the opening of a gap at the Dirac points in the energy spectrum, thereby introducing topological properties, similarly to what has been demonstrated with irradiated photonic crystals [2]. Here we present the current status of an apparatus for studying cold gasses in a hexagonal lattice and the latest experimental results.
[1] T. Kitagawa et al., Phys. Rev. B 82, 235114 (2010).
[2] M. C. Rechtsman et al., Nature 496, 196 (2013).