Session J4: Cold Atoms in Optical Lattices and Double-Well Potentials

1:30 PM–3:54 PM, Thursday, June 7, 2007
TELUS Convention Centre - Glen 206

Chair: I. Danshita, National Institute of Standards and Technology

Abstract ID: BAPS.2007.DAMOP.J4.11

Abstract: J4.00011 : Exploring the phase diagram of a double-well optical lattice

3:30 PM–3:42 PM

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Authors:

  N. Lundblad
    (National Institute of Standards and Technology)

  P. Lee
    (National Institute of Standards and Technology)

  B. Brown
    (National Institute of Standards and Technology)

  J. Sebby-Strabley
    (National Institute of Standards and Technology)

  J.V. Porto
    (National Institute of Standards and Technology)

  I.B. Spielman
    (National Institute of Standards and Technology)

  W.D. Philliips
    (National Institute of Standards and Technology)

Recent work in our group has demonstrated the creation and utility of a double-well optical lattice, consisting of a three-dimensional array of dynamically deformable lattice sites spanning the range from simple single wells to independent pairs of wells with variable barrier height and energy `tilt.' The lattice is occupied by atoms loaded from an initially Bose-condensed sample of $^{87}$Rb atoms. The various lattice parameters can be adjusted so as to create a stack of independent 2D lattices, or, in the sense of the so-called `two-leg ladder,' an array of chained double wells. We present preliminary investigations into the phase diagram of this system, which has been predicted to exhibit novel transitions between a half-filling/unit-filling Mott insulator and the superfluid phase as the chain couplings are varied.

To cite this abstract, use the following reference: http://meetings.aps.org/link/BAPS.2007.DAMOP.J4.11