Mainz 2017 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 29: Quantum Gases: Bosons IV

Q 29.2: Talk

Tuesday, March 7, 2017, 14:45–15:00, P 204

Center of mass dynamics across the superfluid to Mott insulator phase transition in an optical lattice. — •Andreas Müllers¹, Christian Baals^1,5, Bodhaditya Santra^1,3, Ralf Labouvie^1,5, Thomas Mertz², Arya Dhar², Ivana Vasic⁴, Agnieszka Cichy², Walter Hofstetter², and Herwig Ott¹ — ¹Research Center OPTIMAS and Fachbereich Physik, Technische Universität Kaiserslautern, 67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany — ²Institut für Theoretische Physik, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, D-60438 Frankfurt/Main, Germany — ³Zentrum für Optische Quantentechnologien, Universität Hamburg, 22761 Hamburg, Germany — ⁴Scientific Computing Laboratory, Institute of Physics Belgrade, University of Belgrade, 11080 Belgrade, Serbia — ⁵Graduate School Materials Science in Mainz, Staudingerweg 9, 55128 Mainz, Germany

We study the relaxation dynamics of a many-body quantum system after forcing it out of equilibrium by displacing an underlying potential. We adiabatically load ⁸⁷Rb atoms into a 3D optical lattice superimposed on an optical dipole trap and then shift the trapping potential by 1 µ m. Using a scanning electron microscope, we image the center of mass motion of the atoms during relaxation for various depths of the optical lattice, spanning the superfluid to Mott-insulator phase transition. We observe varying dynamics across the transition and by piecewise analysis of the system, we can also identify a thermal phase at the edges which moves with velocities in between those of the superfluid and the insulating phase. We present our measured data and the results of theoretical modeling currently in progress.