Type
Text
Type
Dissertation
Advisor
Schneble, Dominik A | Bergeman, Thomas | Liu, Mengkun | Konik, Robert.
Date
2015-12-01
Keywords
Physics | Atom Optics, Bose-Einstein Condensate, Disorder, Optical Lattices
Department
Department of Physics.
Language
en_US
Source
This work is sponsored by the Stony Brook University Graduate School in compliance with the requirements for completion of degree.
Identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/11401/76724
Publisher
The Graduate School, Stony Brook University: Stony Brook, NY.
Format
application/pdf
Abstract
Quantum gases in optical lattices allow for fundamental studies in atomic and condensed-matter physics and the exploration of novel effects. After a brief introduction to the fundamentals of quantum gas experiments in optical lattices, we discuss two recent experiments focusing on driven matter waves in a one-dimensional optical lattice. The first experiment uses a tilted bichromatic optical lattice to investigate the interplay of disorder and collisional interactions in the accelerated transport of a Bose-Einstein condensate. Here, a screening effect is observed, in which the interactions effectively cancel the damping of Bloch oscillations induced by a (quasi-)disordered potential. This effect can be understood through a modification of the underlying band structure by the interactions. The second experiment studies the dynamics of a weakly trapped condensate resonantly coupled to the orbitals of a strongly confining state-selective lattice. We observe momentum distributions that correspond to matter wave diffraction from a periodic structure; however, the diffractive dynamics remain strongly linked to the internal-state Rabi oscillations. In the regime investigated, which we call the nonadiabatic regime, no diffracting potential can be defined. We show how only for much stronger coupling, the internal and external dynamics decouple, transitioning from nonadiabatic diffraction to the well-studied Kapitza-Dirac diffraction. We further investigate prospects for realizing dissipative spin models in our ultracold atomic gas experiment. To this end, we develop and test in the laboratory several possible implementations of effective spins with differential coupling to a superfluid background and examine their viability for a realization of the spin-boson model. | 94 pages
Recommended Citation
Reeves, Jeremy Brian, "Dynamics of Atomic Matter Waves in Optical Lattices" (2015). Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions). 2605.
https://commons.library.stonybrook.edu/stony-brook-theses-and-dissertations-collection/2605