APS March Meeting 2011
Volume 56, Number 1
Monday–Friday, March 21–25, 2011;
Dallas, Texas
Abstract: T45.00004 : Artificial Staggered Magnetic Field for Ultracold Atoms in Optical Lattices
3:06 PM–3:42 PM
Preview Abstract
Author:
Uniform magnetic fields are ubiquitous in nature, but this is not
the case
for staggered magnetic fields. In this talk, I will discuss an
experimental
set-up for cold atoms recently proposed by us [1], which allows
for the
realization of a ``staggered gauge field'' in a 2D square optical
lattice. If
the lattice is loaded with bosons, it may be described by an
effective
Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian, with complex and anisotropic hopping
coefficients.
A very rich phase diagram emerges: besides the usual
Mott-insulator and
zero-momentum condensate, a new phase with a finite momentum
condensate
becomes the ground-state at strong gauge fields [2]. By using the
technique
of Feshbach resonance, the dynamics of a coherent superposition of a
vortex-carrying atomic condensate and a conventional
zero-momentum molecular
condensate can also be studied within the same scheme [3].
On the other hand, if the lattice is loaded with fermions, a
highly tunable,
graphene-like band structure can be realized, without requiring the
honeycomb lattice symmetry [2]. When the system is loaded with a
mixture of
bosons and two-species fermions, several features of the high-Tc
phase
diagram can be reproduced. A dome-shaped unconventional
superconducting
region arises, surrounded by a non-Fermi liquid and a Fermi
liquid at low
and high doping, respectively [4].\\[4pt]
[1] A. Hemmerich and C. Morais Smith, Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 113002
(2007).\\[0pt]
[2] Lih-King Lim, A. Hemmerich, and C. Morais Smith, Phys. Rev.
Lett. 100, 130402 (2008), Phys. Rev. A 81, 023404 (2010).\\[0pt]
[3] Lih-King Lim, T. Troppenz, and C. Morais Smith,
arXiv:1009.1471.\\[0pt]
[4] Lih-King Lim, A. Lazarides, A. Hemmerich, and C. Morais
Smith, EPL 88, 36001 (2009) and Phys. Rev. A 82, 013616 (2010)
To cite this abstract, use the following reference: http://meetings.aps.org/link/BAPS.2011.MAR.T45.4