Coherent transport of cold atoms in angle-tuned optical lattices

We examine here the classical dynamics of cold atoms in square optical lattices, i.e. lattices obtained with two orthogonal stationary plane waves. Contrary to much of the past studies in this domain, the potential is here time independent and non dissipative. We show that, as a function of the experimental parameters, very different behaviors are obtained, both for the dynamics of atoms trapped inside individual sites, and for atoms travelling between sites: inside the sites...

We load cold atoms into an optical lattice dramatically reshaped by radiofrequency (rf) coupling of state-dependent lattice potentials. This rf dressing changes the unit cell of the lattice at a subwavelength scale, such that its curvature and topology departs strongly from that of a simple sinusoidal lattice potential. Radiofrequency dressing has previously been performed at length scales from mm to tens of microns, but not at the single-optical-wavelength scale. At this len...

We describe theoretically a setup in which a tapered optical nanofibre is introduced into an optical lattice potential for cold atoms. Firstly, we consider the disturbance to the geometry of the lattice potential due to scattering of the lattice lasers from the dielectric fibre surface and show that the resulting distortion to the lattice can be minimized by placing the fibre at an appropriate position in the lattice. We then calculate the modifications of the local potential...

By adiabatically manipulating tunneling amplitudes of cold atoms in a periodic potential with a multiple sublattice structure, we are able to coherently transfer atoms from a sublattice to another without populating the intermediate sublattice, which can be regarded as a spatial analogue of stimulated Raman adiabatic passage. A key is the existence of dark eigenstates forming a flat band in a Lieb-type optical lattice. We also successfully observe a matter-wave analogue of Au...

We report on an efficient and highly controlled cold atom hollow-core fiber interface, suitable for quantum simulation, information, and sensing. The main focus of this manuscript is a detailed study on transporting cold atoms into the fiber using an optical conveyor belt. We discuss how we can precisely control the spatial, thermal, and temporal distribution of the atoms by, e.g., varying the speed at which the atoms are transported or adjusting the depth of the transport po...

We measure the application of simple and compound pulses consisting of time-dependent spatial translations to coupling vibrational states of ultracold 85Rb atoms in a far-detuned 1D optical lattice. The lattice wells are so shallow as to support only two bound states, and we prepare the atoms in the ground state. The lattice is oriented vertically, leading to a tilted-washboard potential analogous to those encountered in condensed-matter systems. Experimentally, we find that ...

The objective of this work is to provide a general introduction into the symmetry analysis of the rachet effect using a simple, non-interacting one-particle dynamics. Despite its simplicity, this model contains all the basic aspects of classical and quantum ratchet dynamics, and may be used also as a starting point of incorporating atom-atom interactions.

On the basis of a simple exactly solvable model we discuss the possibilities for state preparation and state control of atoms in a periodic optical potential. In addition to the periodic potential a uniform force with an arbitrary time dependence is applied. The method is based on a formal expression for the full evolution operator in the tight-binding limit. This allows us to describe the dynamics in terms of operator algebra, rather than in analytical expansions.

We present a cold atomic beam source based on a two-dimensional (2D)+ magneto-optical trap (MOT), capable of generating a continuous cold beam of 87Rb atoms with a flux up to 4.3*10^9 atoms/s, a mean velocity of 10.96(2.20) m/s, and a transverse temperature of 16.90(1.56) uK. Investigating the influence of high cooling laser intensity, we observe a significant population loss of atoms to hyperfine-level dark states. To account for this, we employ a multiple hyperfine level mo...

The dispersion relation of ultracold atoms in variably shaped optical lattices can be tuned to resemble that of a relativistic particle, i.e. be linear instead of the usual nonrelativistic quadratic dispersion relation of a free atom. Cold atoms in such a lattice can be used to carry out quantum simulations of relativistic wave equation predictions. We begin this article by describing a Raman technique that allows to selectively load atoms into a desired Bloch band of the lat...